On this occasion it was an article by Neil Perkin; ‘Blogging isn’t dead, it’s just growing up’. Agree. Neil raises valuable points around microblogging, time, effort and return. We all have blogs we will return to and follow, and most of us will have seen posts decline or in some cases cease entirely. But as Neil states whether or not this means that microblogging or status updates and killing blogging misses the point completely.

He quotes Steve Bowbrick, BBC Blogs Editor, on how blogs offer maturity, opinion, creativity and authenticity, and while they continue to offer this they will continue to offer social and cultural importanace. Why? Simply because as Neil goes on to point out the blogosphere offers discussion and not only that it offers candid, challenging discussion. It offers debate ‘it’s where arguments gain momentum, where opinion builds, where thinking evolves, changes, pushes forward’.

According to Neils article traffic for news blog The Huffington Post recently surpassed The New York Times, this doesn’t surprise me. New services are on the up with entire sub genres being created. Examples used by Neil are Posterous and Storify (which is a particular favourite I might add). Older services are evolving. His point? – Blogging is indeed growing up, and offers value way beyond the obvious.

Neil uses an example of an article he wrote some time ago regarding the benefits of employing bloggers. The benefits are not the story here the story comes a year later when he happened upon a post which was inspired by his blog. Without delving into the depths of causality the truth is as Neil very correctly finishes with ‘sometimes we do things with little knowledge of the benefits to others of what we’re doing. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t do them’

As a marketing recruiter I am always looking at new ways to engage, new ways to develop relationships and establish connections, new ways to reach my network and build upon it, however often the case in recruitment is the need for instant success, quick wins and quantified return. Because of this it can be difficult to legitimise time spent on things that we would struggle to quantify the benefits not only to others but ourselves. Again this doesn’t mean we shouldn’t do them and shouldn’t fight for their value.

To return to Neil’s article one final time – the great thing about bloggers is that they ‘understand the value of connection, naturally get the nuances of social media and network like crazy’ – remind me again what a recruiter should be doing?! Blogging isn’t new by any means but it’s new to this recruiter and its here to stay with this recruiter!

The ET suggest that the massive commercial gains of these global giants, is derived from the relatively low cost of research and development they face as the majority of the groundwork, the innovation if you will, had been done for them, they simply imitated very good ideas.

By packaging these ideas in a much more commercially appealing manner, a fancier label, a cooler image, making the product much more acceptable by the sort of mass market that is able to bring in the figures that have made these companies world leaders, they have been able to perfect good ideas.

Think of it in terms of a relay race, with the second to last runner running out of steam just as they pass the baton on to the last. The race is won, and the individual who crosses the finish line is hailed as the hero – no doubt. But does it matter? So long as the end result is the same, do we care?

Google made searching the web better, fact. In doing so it saves me and approximately 740 million more people every day time, and in terms of a consumer product, if you can save people time in 2011, time is quite literally money.

Do I care that some other organisation that I’ve never heard of might have come up with the idea – or at least part of it – first? No. Caring wastes time, and as we have already established I am only interested in activities which do quite the opposite.

Would I care if McDonalds were being sued by the owner of a burger van who claims that it was his idea first to mass produce hamburgers, available within seconds of ordering? No. It’s cheap and quick, any issues outside of that are somebody else’s problem.

So what does this mean for the technical innovator? Quite simply, make good marketers your very best friends, or just don’t bother. Because in this day and age – certainly from a technological point of view – if you don’t have the necessary commercial savvy to take your brilliant idea and effectively package it in a little cardboard box and include a free toy, and make this available to at least a fifth of the worlds population, now. Then you would have been just as well to have never had your eureka moment in the first place, because you can bet your life that all of your considerable effort, and sizable costs, will have been to line the pockets of the Mark Zuckerberg’s, Larry Page’s and Sergey Brin’s of the future, not your own.

Jonathan

So what is all the fuss about?

Is it the size and portability? The speed at which one can access information? The quick boot up compared to our PC’s? The gaming possibilities? Skype? Word processing? Or all of the above?

This blogger would argue that a figure of 3332% growth of interest in such an expensive treat cannot be generated by entertainment or convenience value alone.

Why do we feel the need to upgrade a car which is otherwise functioning fine? Why do we need to get a bigger television? Why do we need 3D when HD was absolutely fine 5 minutes ago?

Can we honestly say it’s because we really want to? Do we really find satisfaction immediately following the exorbitant expense?

Or would it not be better to admit the truth? For all of the fancy advertising and sales pitches that we credit with forcing our hand to delve into our pockets, the simple facts behind growth figures as large as these comes down to the petulant child in all of us screaming that “they have one, why can’t I?”

Jonathan

PHP Developer – Buckinghamshire
Immediate start for a developer with extensive experience using Drupal or Joomla.

Skill Set:
* Object Oriented PHP 5 programming in a LAMP environment
* Drupal and Joomla
* Joomla (or similar experience writing plugins/modules for CMS’s such as Drupal, Xoops, WordPress, MT) experience
* jQuery / MooTools / Prototype experience
* Linux (Preferably RHEL or Centos) / Apache 2 / MySQL 5 / MemCache

Application Group Leader – Cheshire
Senior opportunity for candidates with knowledge of Java development in a mobile environment

Skill Set:
* Ability to lead a team
* Strong knowledge of Java in a mobile environment with at least 5 years experience
* Knowledge of efficient server interaction and networking

IT Project Manager – Cheshire
Management role within a rapidly growing client for those from a software development background

Skill Set:
* A software development background
* Some experience coordinating a team
* The ability and motivation to get things done
* Some experience in a customer facing role

C# Developer – Central London
Online gaming client with an immediate need for an experience developer with TCP/IP knowledge

Skill Set:
* At least 5 years software development experience of which at least 3 years must be in C#
* Solid Microsoft .Net Framework knowledge
* Solid C++ knowledge
* Solid ASP.NET knowledge
* Solid OO design knowledge

Viv

Whether the report that Microsoft are to buy Nokia for 19 billion dollars is true or not, there are many questions to be answered as to the logic in doing so. In the first instance, can there be any argument to justify spending such a large sum of money to purchase an organisation which has long been in decline, and currently living in the shadows of its more fashionable competitors in Apple and HTC?

Secondly, what sense can there possibly be in the purchase of such a platform, whilst Microsoft still face a long, long fight ahead to gain the sort of market share for their Windows 7 mobile platform? Would the purchase of Nokia’s mobile unit not simply force Microsoft to develop their mobile operating system with a bias towards Nokia devices? Does doing so not simply restrict the likelihood of achieving the desired growth across devices by alternative manufacturers, who are – with few exceptions – currently favouring the Android OS as the number one alternative to the iPhone?

Does this move simply put Microsoft in a position whereby they are effectively spending 19 billion dollars simply to ensure that their already unsteady ship, is likely to sink along with Nokia. Why take on the challenge of having to rescue two brands, when one will do?

A tough task to manage such a high volume on clients and candidates you might say. Engage correctly and this will manage itself, follow a process and your clients will contact you when they have sign off, or even better when a need becomes apparent along with timescales for sign off. Similarly engage correctly, and your network of candidates will remain strong and they too will contact you first when considering a new role. This is by no means exclusive to the executive level management we all aspire to either.

As a quick insight to Engage digital desk below are a number of opportunities I currently have available. If you are hiring I would suggest getting in touch for a chat regarding the talent we have on our DB as there are some true innovators looking at potential opportunities including one of the UK’s top SEO heads.

* Head of Social Media, North, circa £80,000
* SEO Manager, London, circa £45,000
* Online Market Manager, London, circa £60,000
* Senior Digital Account Manager (SEO), London, Top 10 Agency, circa £35,000 +
* Head of Client Services, London, Agency, circa £90,000 to £100,000
* Head of Online, North West, circa £80,000

Alex

Former financial services specialist Cavendish Wealth Management (CWM), which has traded in the sector for over 20 years has relaunched last month. On the 13th of April the owner of CWM decided that the time was right to diversify into an area which was becoming a particular strength. David said: “So much business is transacted over the internet nowadays and usually involves a phone call to or from a contact centre. During recent years at CWM we have noticed an increased shift towards this type of interaction in our financial service market, so it seemed to me to be a logical step to move into contact centre services.”

The Liverpool based company has rebranded to ‘Your Contact Centre Ltd’. The 28 strong team is headed up by Managing Director Scott Day, who has led the transition from its former guise.

Great to see that the contact centre outsourcing sector is continuing to grow onshore and in the North West, which has been a little quiet recently. Look forward to hearing about how Your Contact Centre gets on over the next few months.

This year’s all ticket event will be especially exciting as for the first time E-commerce Expo Manchester will run alongside the newly launched TFM&A who until now, have never held an event outside of London. 

It promises to be a fantastic event giving visitors the opportunity to network with industry leaders and like-minded professionals sharing expert knowledge with over 50 leading businesses offering E-commerce and integrated marketing solutions.

As always, the event brings a number of keynote speakers and I personally, am looking forward to hearing Nic Cumisky’s (from Google) insight into why the mobile platform is becoming the most valuable tool for a marketer to reach the consumer.

I have been talking to a number of E-commerce professionals based in the North West and all have said this year’s event promises to be a cracker – with so many highlights to look forward too why wouldn’t it be?

To everyone going I hope you all enjoy the day, it would be great to hear your highlights before my next blog.

Until next time…

Simon

From live performance to gramophone; gramophone to vinyl; vinyl to cassette; cassette to CD; CD to mp3. The natural evolution of format is an issue that music has dealt with for well over 200 years, the ever changing way we access the warbling of our favourite artist seeming to continually stay with the times. Music technology through the ages is as good a benchmark as to the technological level we have been at, as a species throughout history - constantly improving accessibility, portability, quality, and durability. Some may argue that digital musical technology has now taken this evolution to its peak. In addition to perfecting all of the above qualities we look for in our modern music enjoyment, digital technology has ensured something far more important; longevity. The digital world where our music both exists, and does not at the same time, ensures once and for all that nothing can ever be lost, never forgotten. Classical music written hundreds of years ago, yet now stored within our digital infrastructure will sound as clear in another 200 years as it does now, and for that we should be thankful.

One thing that should be mentioned however, is that this incessant driving forward of musical technology has in fact been championed by those responsible for producing it in the first place. Albeit for commercial reasons, the modern artist desires to reach a wider and wider audience, the ability to profit from two separate individuals located at opposite ends of our world sharing the same musical experience at the exact same moment when a song is released on iTunes. The question I would like to ask is; will your average author embrace the same exposure?

Contrary to the gradual evolution that musical technology has experienced, done so in the constant search perfection, we haven’t seen fit to alter the way we access books…well ever. This drastic and very immediate alteration has more of a feeling of forcing books into the digital era, akin to the stubborn grandparent who has refused to text…their argument? “I never needed to before”.

Just as my 1 year old daughter will undoubtedly ask me one day “Daddy, what’s a vinyl?” can we possibly comprehend of a time when our children, or our children’s children will enquire as to “what is a book?”.

Not to be mistaken with the troll living under the bridge in the famous fairy tale The Billy Goats Gruff. That’s a totally different story, although I could understand if the current crop of developers would wish the same fate on these ‘patent trolls’.

There is a new threat in the world of app developers and it will be big business should the cases be followed through.

This has come to light more so with the public becoming aware of MacroSolve in the US. They have sued 10 mobile application development companies. This has been done under the premise that they have breached a patent law concerned with the ‘system and method for data management’.

Further details of this can be found at http://t.co/nCrWb0m

I’m sure developers are bearing this in mind but it appears to be a growing trend. The speed at which apps are being developed and with demand at an all time high, the ‘patent trolls’ will be making hay while the sun shines.

A bridge too far perhaps?