Apple WDC and our choices

The first day is over and the news is out. New iPhone, .Mac changing to .Me and Snow Leopard Server. Again Apple pushes product and updates its technology to higher levels but this time there is something different.

Apple seems to be directing its eyes to the business sector. Sure the iPhone was launched at consumers but the tools and processes shown are a fair indication that Apple is looking at expanding into the non-consumer area. With what was stated today why wouldn’t any business who has some development budget and has been working on the Mac platform not get excited? There are some great possibilities of using these tools to create some unique and interesting products and arrive at answering some old questions.

The key understanding is that the iPhone is a computer in your pocket. So what would you think 5 or 10 years ago about having that much IT power sitting in your glove compartment? With the wireless availability becoming common place there is now an immediate means to communicate and transmit data. Viewing this from a historic timeline we used to wait until the punch cards were run for the printed work, then it became the waiting for the system to come up before we could use the terminal, our desktop computers were the biggest step in having data and applications available on a desk, then the laptops arrived and we could carry them anywhere and now that same power sits in your pocket and is usable anytime.

Any information or data that you can push or pull can be viewed and worked on. Any place. What will that mean to businesses and to us an individuals remains to be seen. One of the programs mentioned today will give you the geographic location, via GPS, of anyone with an iPhone. You will get a choice if you want that information about you available but if you do then you might not have to answer the cell phone from your spouse asking you were you are. A small point but it is significant. You no longer have to tell people where you are, they will have the means to know where you are.

The questions will be asked will it save time, the precious and finite commodity we all treasure. Maybe, maybe not. But it will change the way we view events, processes and what we have been used to in so many unseen ways. Again technology has an offering that we can either use or it can ‘use’ us. We can either be bombarded by vast amounts of useless information or we can filter and broaden our knowledge with needful and proper information. It all ends in one simple but powerful characteristic, individually we choose for ourselves with our own free will what we will do with this technology.

The joys of technology

At work we have been using a program (Mac) called SnapMail for a number of years. It worked very well as the program allowed us to send messages, files and notify people immediately about anything. You could be typing an email and up comes a small screen telling you your wife is on the line or the Revenue Canada agent has been waiting to see you for 30 minutes. But in the last little while it hasn’t been working very well. It doesn’t seem to work with Leopard and Intel machines on Tiger have problems. We needed something different.

We seem to have gravitated to Skype. It really is a pretty good program to communicate with in a small office setting. In fact it has a lot of potential because it incorporates just about every method to communicate with someone — text, video, or phone.

Now what if we can have the same conversation with our members? There will be some who use Skype and probably would prefer it. The possibilities of better and different dialogues are pretty far reaching. It would definitely be a new conversation method. And what about Board members who need to know and discuss information on a periodic basis? This could be a very genuine means to hear and be heard within various groups of a credit union.

WDC – San Francisco. Two staff members head out Sunday for the Apple WDC next week. The agenda is full of opportunities to learn about the inner workings of the iPhone which we have come to see as a means to have some real effect on retail banking. When you realize that this piece of hardware (or something similar) will give the member a truly portable banking facility it is something we need to learn and prepare for. The possibilities to retrieve relevant financial information at any time, anywhere, begins to expand the definition of mobile banking. And Rogers will soon be selling iPhones here in Canada. There should also be more information about the Mac OS server product which is turning out to be a very stable and robust system. Most of what we have built that surrounds the core banking system is Mac based so San Francisco is going to be more than just “wearing flowers in your hair”.

Updated the OS, spoke out of the time zone and picked up a library book

I saw where Apple updated their OSX to 10.5.3. Usually I would wait and let others suffer the challenges but there have been some minor irritations for me with loading a series of tabs in Safari. For the past month if there were 20 or so loading the last 10 would fail to load. It wasn’t working properly at work. Then at home it would be ok with everything loading. We checked everything and nothing. With this update everything works fine. The pages load quickly and all the tabs loading.

This morning I had a great discussion with Morriss Partee of Everything CU. We discussed the upcoming BarCampBankDallas and BarCampBankBC which we will both be attending. The great thing is that we can continue these discussions shortly, face to face. He is one interesting person who has a great deal of passion for credit unions.

Was able to snap up “The Mind of the Market” by Michael Shermer. The inside cover states that the author uncovers the hidden psychology and biology that shape the way we think about money. That sounded interesting. Further down the page it said “Drawing on the new field of neuroeconomics…investigates what brain scans reveal about decision-making processes such as bargaining, snap purchases and establishing trust in business”. This looks interesting. I just hope the writer doesn’t wander off into the Land Contrived Assumptions.

And tomorrow is Friday!

Transitions

There seems to be so many different points in one’s life that move you in one direction or another. You reflect on your recent and distant past and wonder how things might have been different had you chosen a different path.

And then there are times of transition. Those seem to be the areas where you know there are changes happening around you with more to come but you aren’t sure of what the ending will be. It’s like you are in the middle of the book but only at the 2nd chapter. You can be in the middle of a few transitions at once or be at a point where nothing seems to be moving at all in your life.

I think the most important thing to realize is that what is happening does have some purpose. We tend to be much more comfortable when we can at least see some land in the distance. Most transitions are not life threatening. They tend to be a defining moment well remembered. And they do lead us to change something, move something forward, leave some baggage behind. It becomes a new start in ways and fashions that we hadn’t expected.

When you think about it there is always something changing and moving in so many circles of your life. Physically, mentally, socially, spiritually, work-wise or whatever. We need to realize that this is life’s journey. I’m thankful that I still have the capacity to see and perceive these changing forms because that is what life is all about. We capture growth in such economic terms and neglect to distinguish the growth in our own human lives. Reflection on life’s transitions — something important, something that keeps me human.

Victoria Day Weekend

This has been somewhat of a strange weekend. On Thursday I was feeling pretty bad so left work early. Friday I was sick but unusually so was Marjun. For the past 3 days we have been at home not going anywhere or seeing anyone. That has never happened before. Very different and not like us. My wife is an extravert beyond comprehension so it is really tough for her.

Besides reading ‘The Wind-up Bird Chronicle’ by Haruki Murakami and delving into the finer points of the Nikon, convalescing is extremely boring. You have limited energy don’t do much of anything. Sitting outside has been nice except when having to listen to the neighbour next door tell the world through his cell phone every business deal he has conceived is brilliant. This megaphone neighbour has this dog who has an extreme dislike of me. I like dogs having had everything from Bulldogs to Daschounds but with this pooch there are no warm and fuzzy feelings. In fact all the neighbours don’t like this dog. It is like a spoiled child that does no wrong even though there is more evidence on everyone’s lawn than we care to clean up. But Mr. Businessman thinks nothing wrong. This is a continuing narrative.

The time of BBQs has begun in earnest. You can hear the clank of empty propane bottles being taken to vehicles. The wire brushes are scraping in earnest. Depending on which way the wind is blowing it is either hamburger, ribs or steaks. I think we are having Maui ribs tonight.

And what will Victoria Day have in store for us? Here’s hoping some movement farther than the front door.

Expectations and realities of BarCamps

Yesterday Tim, William and I had a conference call about the upcoming BCBBC. During the conversation we talked about the Seattle Bar Camp Bank and how we viewed it. It was interesting to hear that we all wanted to repeat Seattle’s success by having something similar.

But are BarCampBanks always similar? The format and the way the event is held is unique and it contributes a lot to its success. No one owns the agenda. You vote with your feet. Sessions can continue until everyone says its over. Discussion, dialogue and conversation are great ways to communicate, debates aren’t. Relationships have already been created through Internet means (blogs and Twitter). Meeting people face to face after you have know them online is a phenonemal experience. Venues can add to the flavour of the event. It is a time of incubating ideas. It is the Olympics of conferences. No talking heads telling you what you already now. Inexpensive. Unbelievable value. The points are numerous and everyone who attends can give numerous examples as to why they will attend again.

But each one that I have attended is unique. And I keep trying to nail down what makes it so. There is a climate of networking and relationships that form at these meetings based on the individuals present. The BarCampBanks are made up of such a wide range of characters that they can’t be the same just by the fact of who attends. Maybe it is because we don’t really have such a strong expectation of what will come from the event. We already know that will happen. The expectation is the excitement of the discussions, the passion shown by everyone, the energy in just being in a room with such remarkable people. We thought we came seeking a holy grail but found that each of us had the capacity to create something unique in our relationships and our being together for this short time. The time you have is limited and you want to make the most of it.

BarCamps cannot really be explained. You could add numerous paragraphs to the above and still just touch on what they are. You have to be there and experience a BarCamp to understand fully what it is. With everyone being different you realize it really is the people that are important here. The focus is us. And that is so different from those expensive, boring, talking head, self-appointed expert sessions we have all fallen asleep at.

P2P lending

It seems this “new method” of lending is beginning to re-appear on the Canadian market. CommunityLend has a web site with information about itself and what it does. There are some very valid points for peer to peer lending but there seems to be things that need to be discussed, outlined and disclosed.

Will this industry be regulated? In other words with a solicitation to the general public, through a business model that derives profit, is it to be viewed as a “bank”? Lending, for those that have not had much experience, is not just a science but also an art. There are a myriad of variables that one has to view and digest before funding a loan. My fear is that people are getting involved to save money i.e. cheaper interest rate for the lender and higher interest rate for the depositor, without assessing all of the risks involved. Lending institutions are obligated to follow some due diligence in lending due to responsibility to shareholders, owners, members, directors and regulators. If all goes well and there are no defaults everyone is happy. But one needs to plan and assess what will take place when things don’t go well.

CommunityLend is doing this for free. Maybe I have overlooked this on their site but could someone tell me if they are taking any fees or basis points for setting up these P2P loans. I see they have raised $2.5 million in capital so there are some costs to cover here.

The management, directors and advisors are a pretty knowledgeable group of individuals. Are they seeing CommunityLend as a good business that they can invest in? Being solely cynical, if they know the business they know what they can make in profit setup as the conduit for this type of industry. As a middleman they assume no risk and just piece the deal together. I would hope they would divulge their interest without the platitudes about social aspects of P2P lending. You are in it for the money, right? Wouldn’t a proper disclosure be in order similar to mortgage brokering?

Don’t get me wrong, I am for P2P as long as the playing field for all participants in a public call for funds is equal. Banks and larger financial institutions seem to think they are too big to finance smaller lending so there is a vacuum here that needs to be filled. Putting a term loan into a revolving credit card with an exorbitant interest rate does no one except the lender any ‘good’. I worry about people loosing money by not knowing what they are getting into.

The dangers of self-promotion or what clothing does the Emperor wear?

I am going to go out on a limb here. I have been reading a lot of blog posts over the years but there seems to be a stream of self-gratulation that is fast becoming a river. Some posts take a point, expand on it, and offer some thoughtful critique and whether you agree or not, bring home that the world really is round not flat. That the world we live in has various meanings and perspectives and not anyone group has all the answers. They are usually intriguing and thought provoking.

Now, I see much more subliminal writing that purports to have a unique point of view but really is representing a business. Hans Christian Anderson wrote a fairy tale ‘The Emperors New Clothes’. Though considered a fairy tale there is a school of thought that says the stories were satires on the Danish way of life. There seems to be a similar set of clothing being offered in the blogosphere. The bias is for business, and the posts do not necessarily distinguish the framework for further discussion. Sure we can all throw in little ads of our accomplishments but when the blog becomes solely a business grandizement and that under the guise of an individual, it really isn’t a blog. It is more a subliminal message of a business.

What eventually will happen is those blogs get glanced at rather than read and eventually they get dropped of the daily reading list. I am glad there are more and more blogs being written because the choice to read something mentally stimulating is important.

Some sad news

When you are in the credit union business for long time you get to meet a lot of people. Sometimes you are very fortunate to meet some pretty wonderful people. When I first came to the credit union Frank was on the board of directors. He was a nurseryman, blunt, outspoken but a true co-operator and a fierce credit unionist. Over the years I got to know Frank quite well going for the occasional lunch and visiting him at his place. We had rousing discussions about member loyalty, the responsibility of the member and how important it was to be relative to the members. Beneath that harsh exterior was a very kind and gentle person who was true to himself. He used to show up with boxes of produce to give to the staff. The potatoes he grew were unlike anything I’ve tasted and it was an honour to have Frank give you some of his vegetables.

Everyday when coming to work I have passed Frank’s place and seen his trees grow to be harvested and his wonderful garden and hedges kept perfect and proper. This morning when I drove by I noticed a number of vehicles in the yard that hadn’t been there before. It just appeared strange. This afternoon we were told that Frank had passed away.

Today is a sad day. We will always remember Frank and when I drive by tonight it will be difficult to hold back the tears. He was a good man, someone you will genuinely miss. It’s people like Frank that make this job worthwhile. It’s people like Frank that make this life that much brighter. Take care Frank as we are all going to miss you.

A trial with VoiceThread

Learnt about this site at NV08, VoiceThread. In 5 minutes was able to put this amateur picture, comment and doodle about the new ATM that was installed at the credit union. Please forgive the message, it is the medium that is intriguing.

VoiceThread

Social Bookmarking and the dilemma of choice

At the recent Northern Voice conference Alan Levine made a presentation of WordPress Web sites that don’t look at all like a WordPress blog. Jim Groom also had a presentation about this. Alan had a tag on del.icio.us that he used to keep track of these sites and suggested anyone use it if they also found examples. There were a few people that mentioned work they had done in this area, Alan hit the sites, tagged them, and the source of the information was complete. It was the first time I had seen that happen at a public session.Wikipedia has an interesting introduction on social bookmarking that deserves reading. The article mentions other sites including Simpy and Ma.gnolia. There are a vast variety of features in them all but it brings up the Twitter vs Pownce debate again. Trey twittered William’s quote this morning — community beats cool. With the plethora of web apps available does one choose to use something because it works, works better, has more features or there are more people using it?I would like to use Pownce but there are so few of us there that everyone has drifted back to Twitter. (Flock does a decent but not perfect job of helping one keep informed about the feeds.) So community has outweighed function with that choice. One of the problems we all face is filtering. There are volumes of information pushed out onto the web daily that make it impossible to keep up with. Here again the ‘wisdom of crowds’ comes into play. The use a common social bookmarking service could filter and highlight for all of us those areas of interest. I would love to have an RSS feed of informative bookmarks suggested by friends and peers on a daily basis. It can only add to keeping current on so many important subjects. But again who does one pick? De.licio.us, Ma.gnolia, Simpy or ??

The first day of Northern Voice 2008 = MooseCamp

The first day of NV08 was pretty good. Of course there were sessions you couldn’t get to but there certainly was enough to keep you busy.

The Enterprise Social session had a good attendance and talked about wikis in the enterprise and how to successfully grow and use them. One aspect of wikis which was noted again and again was that search of all kinds sucks. But the biggest question was how do you get people to use these tools? What exactly hinders their use? It was interesting to note that the successful use of a wiki in an enterprise situation was conditioned on both the top and the grassroots contributing and there had to be a balance of both. It wasn’t like it would take hold just because it was introduced.

Citizen Journalism was interesting but it was also a presentation by CBC. The ‘motherhood’ culture predominated. Sure you can send stories and news to them but they will control the content. I don’t think they get it. By it’s nature citizen journalism uses the ‘openness’ of the web as one of its strongest points. To have it funneled and used by a large public media outlet takes away that strength. It was interesting to see how the CBC have now silently changed into beginning to understand what is happening. A few years ago blogging and alternative sources of news were largely ignored and discounted. But the giant will move slowly.

Photocamp was great. Lots of discussion around light.

WordPress and your problems was everyone moving into specific groups with resident experts leading the discussions and helping everyone with their questions. Jim Groom led our small group with some amazing information about plug-ins and presentation schemes.

Alan Levine had a session ‘More Than Cat Diaries’ that showed some web sites that don’t look like blogs but are running on blog software. The tag ‘notcatdiaries‘ on del.icio.us gives numerous examples.

That was it. Voxant was buying the beers and handing out T-shirts at the local bar so a bunch of us headed over there and continued discussing the day’s event. By the end of the day my brain hurt. And now we move into the second day.

The Starbuck incident

Yesterday I went through the drive through at the local Starbucks. Pretty simple order, medium sized coffee (what do they call it grande?) with cream and sugar. So the speaker comes on and this over friendly voice takes my order, asks all the same questions and it seems that life is really good from her voice tone. “That will be $1.97”.

Moving along the line up I get up to the wicket. Of course the change tray in the truck has pennies galore so I add 2 cents to the toonie to get my nickel back. The same girl is cheerfully talking stating this and that and I hear the final ‘Thank you’ and ‘Here is your coffee. I’m fine with the chatter, somewhat overdone, but friendly.

I pull forward, stop and begin to pour the paper cup of coffee into my thermos mug. Black coffee, no cream, no sugar. Aaarrrgghhh!

Now the moral of the story — it doesn’t really matter how friendly you are to the customer or if you are Chatty Kathy extraordinaire, if you screw up the order you really haven’t done your job. Pseudo-relationship building comes at a cost.

End of day or eod in CU speak

Getting ready to head home after a busy day and caught up on the Twitters and Pownces. Tim gets an international lunch and Charlie posts something very nice.

This morning in the Globe and Mail, the front page had a number of articles about the Presidential race south of us. For a Canadian who has lived so close to the border for most of his life and who feels such warmness for the people of the U.S., this race to the election is being watched closely. One realizes when one travels throughout the U.S. (27 states) the political realities are different than here at home. There are mountains of books written on our differences and our similarities. Whether we agree with one side or another it is everyone’s right to voice that freedom and most of our fathers or grandfathers spent some time out of the country 65 years ago to maintain that freedom. What I deem so important to both countries is that our unique relationships continue no matter what the political choice. When you travel north on the I5 and get to the border you see the white Peace Arch. If you ever get a chance stop there and walk through the portal. It mentions the longest undefended border in the world. There is a lot written there that speaks of who we are and what all of us earnestly desire.

I’m going home. Tomorrow night I will be away and off-line for a few days. We all need a rest.

The ongoing saga of Twitter and Pownce

Once upon a time in the land of virtual worlds there lived a little service called Twitter. He (ok it could be she) had a great idea about sending messages to friends. So he released his idea and low and behold it became popular. It worked and people loved it. All was well as groups of friends shared in a fashion they hadn’t thought possible before. Communities formed and relationships built and all was well.

Then came along another little service called Pownce (let us say Pownce is she for the sake of equal gender participation). Pownce loved Twitter but felt hampered at times, and so her idea was released and low and behold it became popular. Friends found out about here, told others, and now the groups started forming. But wait something unforeseen happened.

How could these established groups maintain contact using one or the other? The discussions began. People changed from T to P and then back again from P to T. Groups all over the place were stating similar things. All the twitterers and powncers were amiss. What would happen? Would the grey knights Googley and MicroHard do something?

We can’t say everyone lived happily ever after. We do know that things change. Everybody is still here. The relationships between people in the groups haven’t changed, just the means of communicating. Twitter and Pownce continue to develop because both can see they have to. The real beauty of this is us. We, by using whatever platform we choose, are influencing what in the end will be a changed platform. Will someone be able to develop the DIY concept in microblogging, that is create one area of all my friends but choose the features I want to use with friends, groups or the public timeline? And that has been the neatest things about this episode. We are watching it unfold as well as being part of it.

A Monday in February

Today was my day off so headed to the barber (or do they call them hair stylist’s these days). I mentioned my trip to Europe next month and he said “you know we should cut your hair shorter.” I trust the guy and said ok. Now without my glasses I can’t really see what he is doing but I am hearing the buzzing haircutter as it chomps away quite a bit of hair. A little worried I keep my mouth shut remembering to trust the guy. After it is all over and I get my glasses back – it doesn’t look bad. And when I pick my wife up from work she is delighted. So it worked.

The PVR had the Super Bowl taped on it so this afternoon I would get to watch it. I kept away from the papers, radio and TV but yesterday the Twitter group gave it away so I had a clue as to how it would end. (Note to self: turn off Twitteriffic next time) But with all the darn commercials the program didn’t tape the last 7 minutes. Subesquent reading of the sports page then clues me in on how the Giants won. AARRRGGGHHH!!!!

Moral of these stories – trust your barber before you trust your PVR.

Odd thoughts

We were successful yesterday in moving our core banking system to Linux, changing our switch provider to Threshold and installing a new Diebold ATM at the branch. Months of planning and some extremely dedicated staff were the major contributors to a long but satisfying day. Everybody wants to take it easy for the next few days just to catch their breath.

I came across these 3 quotations this morning in an email. They ring true.

Learn to enjoy every minute of your life. Be happy now. Don’t wait for something outside of yourself to make you happy in the future. Think how really precious is the time you have to spend, whether its at work or with your family. Every minute should be enjoyed and savored.
— Earl Nightingale 1921-1989, Author & Speaker
Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature nor do the children of man as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing.
— Helen Keller 1880-1968, Blind/Deaf Author & Lecturer
I want to stand as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all kinds of things you can’t see from the center.
— Kurt Vonnegut, Author

How many CUs should be blogging or how many angels can dance on a head of a pin?

Morriss has written a blog “How many credit unions should be blogging” over at EverythingCU.com. Some very interesting ideas that I need to expand on.

Beyond the point of every credit union should be blogging is a crucial concept that constantly churns in my mind. Credit unions’ common cause is that of a co-operative financial institution serving the needs of its members. The blog as a means of communicating should augment this premise, again by serving member needs. But how does something as verbose as a blog truly represent the entity? There will be views and ideas proposed that are representative of the individual, blogging about the credit union. That could be staff, management, CEO, board member, or even a member themselves. The credit union’s blog is also it’s banner and that communication will have a human perspective, not necessarily the credit union’s perspective. And this is maybe why CUs are hesitant. Some understood the mantra that their message must be pure, sanitized, non-controversial, politically correct, easy to understand and always towing the marketable CU (company) line.

I don’t believe a blog is a tool in a marketing toolkit. It can’t be a blog if it has to follow the above mantra. It needs to be resilient, challenging, inclusive, fair, honest, thought provoking, communicative, informing and whatever other attribute that will evolve over the next years. It is fundamentally the conversation that those 10 charter members had around that kitchen table that started the credit union. Those people got together out of a need, not out of a marketing direction.

The readers of credit union blogs need to understand the nature of blogs, that they aren’t marketing instruments (they may be tainted with marketing though). That they are open dialogues. They are a member notice board. They are Luther’s Wittenburg door. They are the radio call in show. They are the emotion, passion and human attribute of the credit union in a textual form. Again I would use the phrase – they are like nailing jello to a tree, sometimes very tough to define.

What is so necessary is that blogs become what each credit union needs them to become, developed in the context of their own culture. That diversity is something that should not be feared but embraced because that is what this system is all about. And here is where I will disagree with a number of my blogging peers. It cannot be solely or utterly defined in the realm of marketing because that isn’t what it is. Members will eventually see it as that. Do we really want our blogs to be the cloaked hype machines that so many businesses have made their blogs become? We are co-operatives. Realizing that just makes us different. And blogging should fit so easily with credit unions because diversity is and always is the domain we live in. If don’t realize our difference then we have a bigger problem that goes beyond blogging.