It is the future. How we laugh at the thought of people typing things into computers. They used to sit there at wooden desks, in adjustable chairs, interfacing with their device at the speed of tapping. Those who were good typists could get a good speed going while the rest of them had to keep … Continue reading Smartphones? For how long?
Targeting business support
There is a lot of help for businesses out there, you just have to look. Much of it is free, either from local authority business development teams, associated organisations or online. Yet the numbers of people who are helped, in my opinion, is a drop in the ocean compared with the number of businesses that … Continue reading Targeting business support
The same three things
I must have mentioned this over and over again this morning. I was with Simon, a photographer living in the middle of Northumberland, blissfully miles from anywhere and talking to him about developing, or rather redeveloping his business. I have mentioned him before as he is someone I have the pleasure of being involved with … Continue reading The same three things
Of the clock
The clocks have gone back. My stomach says it’s lunchtime yet the timer on the oven tells me there is still an hour to go. I've lost an hour or gained an hour. I can't work it out but know it's lighter in the morning and darker earlier in the afternoon. The whole daylight saving … Continue reading Of the clock
World values day
World Values Day, October 18, was a busy day for me this year. I started at the Socitm North conference in Darlington, spent some time with a potential infrastructure provider and ended up at the Dynamites 18 awards dinner in Newcastle. Before then I attended the latest North East Initiative on Business Ethics event at … Continue reading World values day
Rural problems
Over the last year Justin and I have been working with a small number of rural businesses to help them develop. We struggled with what rural meant in this context. Is a rural business one that is based in an area with few homes or other buildings and a low population density? Or is it … Continue reading Rural problems
Socitm #North18
Once again I had the pleasure of talking at this year’s Socitm North Conference. I had not expected to be involved as such and so it was all a bit last minute, yet one of the advantages of blogging (and being opinionated) is that there is always a pile of material to draw from. The … Continue reading Socitm #North18
The world according to me
I used to think of myself as a liberal, of the bleeding heart kind until I read ‘Sapiens, A Brief History of Humankind’, or rather listened to the audio book by Yuval Noah Harari. What made me stop and think, figuratively rather than literally as I was driving at the time, was that liberalism included … Continue reading The world according to me
Digital hoarding
In a previous blog I said how I had started to build a home archive. I have been working through all of the papers that we keep and scanning the important ones, or those that don’t have email copies, and storing them on a pair of hard drives. One I keep in the house and … Continue reading Digital hoarding
Respond to the question
Perhaps I have set myself too high standards but I have been disappointed recently throughout an interview process, not as an interviewee but rather as the interviewer. I have had the pleasure, or rather the misfortune, to sit in front of people who could not express themselves, articulate their opinions or construct reasonable answers to … Continue reading Respond to the question
Thoughts from a Guerrilla Worker 