A Look Inside

Absolutely Amazing

December 14, 2007 · Leave a Comment

National Geographic had back-to-back shows this evening about some things that are happening, and have happened, in Dubai, and it was just incredible to watch. The first was a feature on The World, a grouping of 300 man-made islands in the shape of the world’s continents. These islands were created by dredging up sand from the bottom of the sea and shooting it into specific spots to create the individual islands. The engineers use various techniques, including gps, to get the shorelines and heights of the islands just right. A crew of 40 or so men live on the dredges for 45 weeks as they work to get all of the islands in place. As of this writing The World is 94% complete.

Watching the feature on The World was unbelievably captivating. The engineering that is taking place is absolutely amazing. Nothing like it exists anywhere, and the hope is that the tourism it attracts will support Dubai’s economy when their oil resources dry up.

riginally the islands where intended for the super-rich and mega-elite. Apparently, though, many purchasers balked at the sticker prices on the islands. So now The World is being turned over to developers. An example of one that was featured was a group of Irish developers that are purchasing the island that represents Ireland. They want to bring the uniqueness that is Ireland to an island off the cost of Dubai. They actually intend to mimic the Irish coastline, country-side and city features on their island.
It will be incredible to see how these islands grow and develop, and the jury will be out for a long time to come on the success of this undertaking.

he other feature was on the Burj Al Arab, a luxury hotel that was finished 1999 and took 5 years to build, and is currently the world’s tallest hotel. Apparently artificial islands are the theme of Dubai because the Burj Al Arab is build on a man-made island. It was designed after a sail and much of the support for the building exists as an exoskeleton.

his feature was a little more detailed on the engineering since the building is actually complete. They covered the immense electrical engineering projects that had to be undertaken as well as many of the visions of the building designer providing complex and never before seen challenges to the engineering teams that had to construct the hotel. The hotel also features the world’s tallest atrium at 590 feet as well as the world’s biggest “fabric wall” made of a Teflon-coated fiberglass that encloses the atrium.

The minimum cost for staying at this hotel, in case you are planning your next vacation, is $1,000 a night. For those who are really looking to splurge, the Royal Suite is available for $28,000 per night.

In reading more about these two grand projects on the web, I came across some other massive undertakings in Dubai. They are apparently also creating three additional island groups called The Palms Islands, named as such because they are island groups in the shape of palm trees (why not, right?). They are also constructing the Rose Tower, a hotel that will become the world’s tallest hotel surpassing…you guessed it…the Dubaj (and again: why not, right?).

So the future either holds a ton of promise for Dubai as the tourist destination of the future for the wealthy. Or they are extravagantly splurging (read: throwing their money away) on structures that draw real estate developers and speculators that may be setting themselves up with unrecoverable expenses. Here’s hoping the people of Dubai, and the mid-east in general, will benefit from the decisions their Sheiks have made. And when it’s all said and done, we may be talking about the 8th, 9th and 10th (and 11th and 12th if you count the Palm Islands separately) all being off the coast of Dubai.

→ Leave a CommentCategories: Interesting Things
Tagged: , , , ,

New Media Perspective

December 8, 2007 · Leave a Comment

Blogging has proven to be a disruptive trend to old media newspapers and magazines. Some within the blogosphere would go so far as to say it is the beginning of the end for the old media titans, but that’s probably a bit extreme. The writing may be on the wall, but the media moguls who are paying attention have the chance to make the changes to stay around for a long time to come. Two major things keep the blogosphere from becoming the death knell for the media as we know it.

First of all the blogosphere, still in it’s infancy compared to traditional media which started with Gutenberg’s printing press, is relatively self-promotional. Bloggers link to each other, comment on each others’ posts, write responses to others on their own blogs and vote for each others’ impact on the blogosphere. None of those are bad things and you may see lots of that here, but those things aren’t going to depose the current media regime.

Second, bloggers as a whole lack credibility. It’s going to take a lot to shake the norms that our society has determined give writers and reporters credibility in a system that has been refined over time. A columnist has credibility because the newspaper he writes for has long been established in the minds of its readers as a credible source. An author as credibility because the publishing company that bound and published her book and put their name behind it decided on our behalf that she was credible. This is not to say that bloggers don’t have credibility, or that all columnists and authors are credible, but general terms it’s how the system currently works. For the blogosphere to really make the leap and compete with those who have long established themselves, a reputation system needs to be developed.

Take a look at the Techmeme leaderboard. As a bastion of the self-promotion of the blogosphere, they have 5 old media companies in their top 5 (3. New York Times, 12. Reuters, 13. BBC, 16. Associate Press and 20. Wall Street Journal). The old guard isn’t going anywhere soon.

What got me started on this post was wondering if the blogosphere itself is undergoing some disruption. In an era where microchunking is all the rage the question has to be asked: will twitter and tumblr disrupt the blogosphere itself. There has to be some limit to how much a single person can blog, twit and tumbl while consuming other people’s blogs, twits and tubmls and still manage to be a productive, contributing member of society. Will we start giving our editorials to each other in smaller and smaller doses? Will our commentaries come in short bursts almost like a play-by-play of our lives, or of what is running through our minds? Personally, I don’t think so.

Much like with the blogs, twitter and tumblr present a host of possibilities. They give us a way for those who are interested in what’s on our mind at any given moment a way to catch those things in an easy to consume fashion.We may see athletes on the sidelines doing something similar to the twits we see today. Parents might get some insight into how their teenager thinks and what they are interested in by getting a feed of their tumblog.

In all of this, I believe that we’re currently looking at a page of photos in the album of the life of the press. As print media continues the migration to online/digital media we’re exploring all the ways in which information can be shared. There are always those who will be sprinting ahead and exploring the remotest possibilities. Some of the things they find will be adopted and refined while others will only be temporary, but all of them will help define the future of it all.

Extended commentary will be found in a blog-like format, a format that will continue to evolve as future iterations expose newer and better ideas. People on the inside of our lives and those in close geographical proximity, anyone with enough of a reason to care, really, will be the ones to consume our microchunks.

And the old media conglomerates? They are not going anywhere for a long time to come.

→ Leave a CommentCategories: Media
Tagged:

Common Sense

December 6, 2007 · Leave a Comment

I had a great conversation with some friends this morning about common sense. Why is it that so many companies, organizations and leaders seem to lack common sense? What is so obvious to us as customers, employees or just outside observers about what a company should or shouldn’t do is completely lost on the people who actually make those decisions.

From within companies employees underneath the decision makers often have a good perspective on whether or not a decision to do something makes sense. Why then do so few companies have a feedback mechanism to not only gather this information but also to actually evaluate it’s legitimacy? Putting a system in place by which a company can obtain and act on employee feedback is vital, not just for employee satisfaction, but also in getting some helpful outside perspective on whatever decisions are being made.

Customers outside of companies also often have opinions on how a company can improve it’s products and services in common sense ways. But often companies take their cues for product/service design, introduction and improvement from sales figures and internal opinions. Customer feedback is free, and that’s where the dollars come from. Giving the customer a voice in their purchases invests them deeper into an organization and potentially results in more loyalty and more spending. But too often customers are left wondering why a company chose to make certain decisions and have no avenue to for asking why and giving their opinion in a way that will be heard.

And then there are times where you hear about a situation and wonder where the common sense went. For example, I was told about a company that selected a vendor and software package and began their implementation. A mere 4 months and $100,000,000 dollars later, the entire thing is going to be scrapped and the company is going to start over…..with the same software package…..and the same vendor. That just doesn’t make sense!

Every company should have an Executive VP of Common Sense, or a Department of Common Sense, and the people designated as such should be commissioned to help keep the company grounded. They should make sure they are doing reality checks with management, employees and customers, and the company should make sure they are empowered to help see necessary changes through to completion.

→ Leave a CommentCategories: Business Strategy
Tagged: ,