Making information work

This is a good time again to remind everyone that this is me writing, not my company.

I read a great article in an old edition of The Economist today about Maersk, and their new awesome huge container ship the Emma Maersk.  She is able to carry more containers than almost any other ship, and Maersk predicts even larger ships in the future. Naturally, the size limits her: she is not able to travel through the Panama Canal etc., but it is still worth it. She acts as somewhat of a bulk mover between freight “hubs”.

Much like the A380 is predicted to do.

So, if one mover of material is predicting increasing use of hub-to-hub moving of “things”, and this strategy seems to make so much sense, why am I  so powerfully negative to this behavior when it comes to commercial air travel?

Simply because of this fact: people are not containers. People think, feel, and behave in far less predicable ways. And we want to get there, now!

That is why even though the scientific background that made Airbus feel the A380 was the right way to go probably checks out 100%, but is still wrong. They did not calculate with the fact that even though it might be a per seat cost advantage (or even an environmental advantage) to use bulk carriers of people between hubs, people simply demand other things

That is why it feels so great to be on the Boeing 787 Dreamliner side of things. (And, of course, that is why Airbus has created the A350 - a direct competitor to the 787.) Within 10 days, Boeing will roll out the 787 - all covered with a live webcast - and I will float on small clouds of aviation-nerd-happiness. It is going to be great.

David

It is an absolutely fabulous morning here in Stockholm. The sun is shining, my colleagues are kind, the coffee tastes great, and my family is perfect.

My blog was hacked (I suppose) the other day - thanks for the heads up, Anders - for the second time. My ISP is not gaining points. But I am still smiling.

David

Swedes amaze me sometimes. Closing their business for lunch. Not opening until late. Closing early. Not keeping enough personnel to have short lines at the queue.

What? Do you not want my money?

Also, why oh why did Apple release the PC version of the Safari browser in this shape? Constant crashing, absolutely bizarre behavior on all webpages (not showing linked text, etc. etc.). Pull it or call it “Pre-Alpha”.

David

My sister is living in an apartment a block from the beach in Santa Monica. She has a big window in the ceiling of her bedroom. I would gladly trade lives for a couple of days…

Rent A Coder is a fantastic service. I have connected to a developer in Yemen who creates absolutely first rate code. I fearlessly predict that we will be moving certain technical work to Asia / Middle East / South America / Africa in some years not to save money, but to raise quality.

The world of online communications is about to explode. With an economy near it’s peak, the world of infinite opportunities will only become more interesting.

I have a cousin who recently graduated from Brown. She wrote one of the best pieces of poetry I have ever been exposed to. It goes: “A short little song about dying: la!” It fills me with feelings every time.

Consistency in content creation is key to keeping visitors, it seems. My traffic has fizzled to nothingness with my absense. I will try to change that now.

My daughter is wonderfully wonderful. She screams and drives me crazy, and with a half second of eye contact, it all melts away.

My good friend Kevin is shortly an interior designer. Going for a masters degree. I wish I had his drive.

I have wanted to say this for a long time, but not dared: I do not like Second Life. It is a place of no meaning. Big gatherings of people with a purpose are powerful. Give me any corporate communication challenge - I will have more success in World of Warcraft than Second Life any day.

If I could be in any country and any city in the world during the summer, I would stay put right here. Stockholm with great weather is amazing.

If I could be in any country and any city in the world during the winter, I would go back to San Diego.

Why does neither Flickr or YouTube allow visitors to tag images and video? I am too lazy - but I am certain that one or two of my visitors would not mind.

Another social network, another David profile. I am active in Facebook now. Find the link under “contact”.

You know what they say about the “magic extra energy” you get when becoming a parent? Bollocks. I could fall asleep walking.

A client of mine is one of the two major diaper manufacturers. So naturally, I was instructed to use nothing but his. But when Ella was born, we were given samples of both, and have now gone through a large batch of both. Gladly for me, his company clearly makes the best diapers. No need to lie.

It is not easy to be a fan of SonyEricsson phones. How can a phone be allowed on the market that actually has a malfunctioning time system? Come on guys, the watch is not new. I should not be forced to reset it once a week.

Wednesday is a day off. I will be painting the small summer house. And showing Ella her future home for the first time.

Family is great.

David

It is so much easier to react than to initiate - a Swedish communicator wrote about channels and types of communication, and I answered, and we got a discussion going.

But simply reacting simply doesn’t cut it.

How does one find the energy to write leading edge, provocative text? I imagine that a very early step is accepting that you will be heavily criticized. Then you probably need to read lots. And initiate discussions with others.

David

Well, yeah. Of course. Dumb question. But an even more horrible sales pitch.

As a new father, it is interesting to note how much stuff is sold via this guilt trip.

- Do you want the cheap or expensive stroller?

- What is the difference?

- Well, do you want your child to have the best?

I am tired of it. Well, my bank is tired of it. Because I fall for it, every single time. Does that mean that I love my family more than everyone else? Yeah, I think so.

David