I saw a video today that was very interesting and features BNN interviewing Brad McLister, editor of Canadian Mortgage Trends. He does a great job of explaining why 35 year amortizations are not all evil, and what home buyers should be aware of regarding future rates, future payments, and the use of mortgage brokers over their banks.

Take a view of it at:

Click HERE to see the video.

Thanks again for reading!

Title: Mediaconcentratie in Vlaanderen 2009
Company: Vlaamse Regulator voor Media
Introduction:

“In een eerste hoofdstuk wordt de Vlaamse mediasector afgebakend.

In een tweede hoofdstuk wordt nagegaan hoe de in hoofdstuk 1 beschreven spelers zich tot elkaar verhouden en eventueel tot een bepaalde mediagroep gerekend kunnen worden.

In een derde hoofdstuk ten slotte, worden een aantal indicatoren voorgesteld waarmee de eigenlijke concentratie gemeten wordt.”

Type: Study
Download: rapport-2009
Via: Communicatiemannen

I get calls and questions on this topic almost every week. Given the changing market, it’s time for an update as of November 15th, 2009.

In fact, I recently took a call from a real estate lawyer who was buying a place and wanted my opinion on this topic, and I went into great length as to what I thought. In the end, she ended up taking variable, and in this market, I think this is the right move, for her. Here is why:

I have written several strong articles in favour of fixed mortgages in the past. For me, personally, I just like them. Period. It’s the way I work. I want to know what my payment is going to be for the next 5 years and I don’t want anyone telling me otherwise.

Could I save money if I took a variable. Probably, but I don’t care. If you are considering fixed or variable rate mortgages there are three things you need to think about three specific questions:

1. What are the current rate offerings ?
2. What is your income and employment situation?
3. What is the reason you are buying the property?

WHAT ARE THE CURRENT RATE OFFERINGS?

Previously, when I was arguing for fixed rates for most clients it was at a time when the 5 year variable and 5 year fixed were nearly on par. This was because the capital markets were forcing banks to set their variable at prime rate PLUS 1.5% or prime rate PLUS 1.0% for a rates that were equal to (or even higher!) than fixed mortgages. In this situation, with prime rate sitting at all time lows, it made no sense to take a variable rate when there was only one way for rates to go (up) and no savings, even on day one, by taking a variable rate mortgage.

If there is no savings by taking a variable rate, why absorb the risk of the rising payment?

Well, capital markets have changed, and there are a few banks offering prime MINUS 0.10% for a net rate of 2.15% versus my best rate on a 5 year fixed of 3.85%. This is a full 1.7% difference, and this market, that is substantial. In other words, prime rate would have to rise from 2.25% up to 3.95% before you break even. With the Bank of Canada pledging to hold rates low until mid 2010 that is about 9 months of a significant savings before we see prime start to move up. If you want to save some money, this is a compelling time to take a variable rate as you can transfer to a fixed rate mortgage at any time, with no penalty.

Based on current offerings from banks, and depending on your own answers to my next two questions, variable looks like the way to go.

WHAT IS YOUR INCOME AND EMPLOYMENT SITUATION?

With a variable rate, you face a variable payment (or a variable amount that goes towards principle – which CAN result in a negatively amortizing mortgage where you owe more at the end of the term than at the beginning, if you don’t pay attention).

So, how are you paid? How often? Are you paid a salary that is set? Do you get bonuses or commissions? Are you self employed with the option of more work if you want it? These are all important things to think about.

If you are paid a salary, and especially if you need to take a variable rate to comfortably afford the property, you need to be very careful if you take a variable. You’ll need to watch interest rates and lock in at the first sniff of rising rates. This is true unless you have a mortgage payment that is very modest when compared to your salary.

If you get bonuses and commissions, do you NEED to earn those bonuses in order to make your payments? What happens if the rates rise (and your payment) and you don’t get the bonus? Will you be ok? Do you have enough “wiggle room” in your budget to absorb a higher payment, or a higher payment along with lower income?

If you are self employed, how seasoned is your client base? How confident that you can repeat last year’s success? If you are a realtor, chances are you have done very well the last five months, but what about last december through march? If your income is seasonal, or varies dramatically, do you also want a variable payment?

The bottom line is to look hard and dispassionately at your income pattern. If you have a lot of  “wiggle room” to absorb a rising payment, or if your budget is sufficiently comfortable, then you can take a variable and enjoy the savings.

However, if you NEED that variable rate to afford your payment, you should not be taking it and not buying the property. People are, by their nature, myopic, and they only look at the recent past. If rates rise, are you going to be ok?

WHAT IS THE REASON YOU ARE BUYING THE PROPERTY?

This is often overlooked. People get so hung up on fixed versus variable discussions that they forget why they are buying the property. If you are buying a rental / investment property, then you likely are thinking all about cash flow. If this is the case, variable may be the way to go. If you are buying your own home, and you intend to live in it for a while (5+ years, for example) then you may want a fixed rate so you can rest assured your housing payment won’t increase.

Or maybe not.

There are lots of other reasons, and here are a few: Maybe you’d prefer to buy your house and you want to save every penny, so you plan on taking variable and watching rates like a hawk to try and capture the most savings possible. Personally, as someone IN the industry, I think this is madness unless you happen to enjoy watching interest rate and bond moves (perversely, I do, and you should take advantage of this).

Or maybe not.

Maybe you are buying a property that is a “holding property” and you simply want to minimize your carrying costs until you subdivide it, or until the subdivision or city plan reaches your property and you sell. Variable might be a good choice here as your exit plan is relatively assured and timeline clear. With savings available on variable in the short term, this might be the way to go.

Or maybe not.

Maybe you have a lot of “wiggle room” in your budget, but are so busy you don’t feel like watching rates all the time, and heck, if rates rise a point or two it won’t be the end of your financial world. Variable might be the way to go here.

Or maybe not.

Maybe you are doing an equity take out to invest, and with rates so low you want to lock in now at the fixed rates because you don’t believe they’ll be back any time soon. You plan on investing the money, and you want to know what your “cost of capital” is so you can monitor if your investments are outperforming your debt to buy them. In this case, fixed rates are likely for you.

Or maybe not…

IN SUMMARY

As you can see, a lot of the decision is very personal, and based entirely on features of your own unique financial situation and personality makeup.

There is no rule of thumb. Brokers that drone on and on that “variable is always best” are likely getting angry calls from their clients they put in variable mortgages 6 months ago when rates were prime + 1% and are now Prime – 0.10%. Good. That’s the way it should be. Advice is only as good as the person giving it, and if they don’t take the time to look at your unique situation of income, risk tolerance, budget, and property type, then they aren’t doing their job and you should be speaking to someone like me instead.

Until next time, happy house hunting!

Location based services were always about the wet dreams of advertisers where you come in contact with relevant advertisements right on the spot. We see however a different development on the same principle emerge, much more likely to occur. A come2me economy you could call it. Based on a really consumer centric approach.

Maybe it is not the best term. It has to do with permission based thinking, with VRM instead of CRM (Vendor Relation Management), that all start with the idea that the future success for a company will not be in the one that convince the most consumers to come to them and buy their products. Instead the brand has to find the customer and service them with real value.

This you have to combine with the new promises of a smart context where we can use our augmented devices to find real value deals in our direct and dynamic environment. I belief this will go further. The service has to adapt to your wishes connected to your context, for instance your location. Impulses based services as I called them in my talk for Reboot11 earlier this year.

Since this talk augmented services have become more serious than ever. And hot, as all the attention for Layar proves. And there is a location based service that is really successful: Foursquare. Brightkite try to connect to this vibe with the new 2.0 version. Chris Messina wrote a good analysis of this new phenomena.

We are just at the beginning of the new future. Smartness of our products is combined with the richness of the cloud and we move to new permission based services that offer you the stuff you need. Augmented services will force brands to think of the added value they offer in our personal contexts; how they will contribute to our experience. In that sense location based services will not look like Minorty Report where all the commercial context is personalized, brands will be open to adapt to our context and offer suggestions to use them. That is the only way to survive the attention economy.

I  first came across the concept of Vendor Relationship Management (VRM) in a new chapter by Doc Searls for the 10th Anniversary Edition of the Cluetrain manifesto.  Meeting Doc Searls recently and then attending the London VRMHub meetup has given me a better idea of what is happening in the VRM space.  Having worked in the CRM space for many years the idea of VRM seemed very radical but i knew it made sense.  The essence of VRM is really around individuals having control of their own personal data and their relationships with organisations and how they interact with them.  Today each company a person interacts with maintains their own separate information that is often hard to access externally.  Moving house highlights the problem of just how many companies you need to tell to change their data about you.   So with VRM an individual should be able to maintain their own personal data store (ie address, contact details, wish lists etc) and decide who and how much of that they share with organisations.  It also includes the idea of people being able to issue a personal RFP for what they want (ie a digital camera with 12megapixels, supporting RAW for a budget of $300) and then allowing companies to respond with their best offers reversing the current model of having to hunt down what you want from sellers.

This is disruptive as it shifts power from the sell side to the demand side.  It’s a kind of revolution waiting to happen.

So it raises a number of questions as follows:-

Why would companies be interested in getting involved ?

Well VRM if done correctly should be able to benefit both demand and sell side.  Allowing people to share information with organisations they trust could result in organisations having a more complete picture of a person not just filtered through their own narrow view.  Sharing a wish list or history of items already purchased from different places should allow companies to present offers that are more aligned to the person’s interest and needs.

The other answer is that people want control of their own data and this demand will increase and ultimately organisations will need to respond and respect how their customers want to interact with them.

Those companies who embrace this first have an opportunity to gain great PR  and a competitive advantage.

What is happening in this space right now ?

So VRM is still quite embryonic at the moment.  A few different projects are underway in different areas.   A good one page overview of what VRM is can be found at http://www.vrmhub.net/vrm-in-a-nutshell/.  The main project site is maintained at the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard under the guidance of Doc Searls.

A few of the projects underway include :

• The MINE project – tools to allow individuals to manage and share through personalised feeds their personal data both identity based and any data the user authors such as photo’s, blogs, videos etc
• The MINT project – focussing on how to get transactional information from organisations shared using standards such as JSON, XML, CSV, atom etc
• MyDex – storage of personal data with ability to specify which data is shared with which organisations and notification of changes to certain data
• PAOGAperson – secured safety deposit box for personal identification data that also enables data to be verified/certified
• MySortingOffice – relationship specific email addresses with ability to embed selected personal data for sharing with specific organisations or people
• EmanciPay project – a new model for the media marketplace allowing consumers to choose how to pay and how much they pay on their own terms for content they consume.

The driving force behind these different initiatives varies from those approaching it from an individual perspective of managing your own data (ie MINE) to those focussed on the relationship between an individual and an organisation (ie MyDex).

These different projects and approaches also highlight the many forms of different “personal data” that exists.  At a high level it would include all of the following :

• Identity based data (ie name, address, email, telephone,  NI number, passport number etc) – this type of data is fairly static in nature and can often be subject to validation and verification
• Transactional data (ie purchases, usage based such as mobile or utility data, banking transactions like direct debits) – this is data held by organisations that provide services that can be bought or consumed (ie Amazon, HSBC etc)
• Records based data (ie medical records, HR, credit history, electoral records, tax records, student records etc) – stored by organisations
• Personally authored data (ie blogs, photo’s, wish lists, video’s, favourite links, documents etc) – often stored in a variety of online tools such as WordPress, flickr etc

How can you get involved ?

Firstly through education.  There is an opportunity to discuss and engage with organisations about  this new way of doing business and help them understand the opportunity.  Disruptive messages can make a difference.  Here is a good slide deck from Adriana Lukas who is one of the VRM evangelists in the UK and organises the monthly VRMHub in London.

Secondly by helping think through and contribute to the projects out there.  VRM is still evolving and there are a number of initiatives in progress from open source to commercial solutions addressing different areas of the VRM space.  One area that is still relatively unexplored is that of applications that can enable users to manipulate and get value from their own data once it is under their control.  This could be tools that help visualise data, trend analysis, reporting, sharing of data etc – this could well be where a killer app emerges that helps drive adoption.

VRM is certainly a disruptive concept and highlights how much of our personal data is out of our control.  With new online tools and services emerging all the time this problem will only increase.  It is certainly a worthy effort that deserves support and has wide ranging implications for how data may be managed in the future.

]]> http://carriebish.wordpress.com/2009/10/02/tell-us-once-goes-national/ Fri, 02 Oct 2009 11:04:10 +0000 carriebish http://carriebish.wordpress.com/2009/10/02/tell-us-once-goes-national/

So I saw something on Twitter about the government’s intention to roll-out the Tell Us Once programme nationally.  And then someone asked me what I thought about it…

I think it’s a laudable goal to try to simplify the bureaucracy that citizens experience when dealing with the state in all its guises. However I think TUO is problematic for three reasons:

1. It’s not addressing the real issue, namely that the state is too bureaucratic.  TUO is a work-around because the state isn’t organised around actual people.  It’s sticking plaster that gives an artificial sense of coherence to a flawed system.  And everyone knows that papering over the cracks is unsustainable.
2. It’s not giving citizens control over their data.  It’s channelling data between bits of government and the scope for error is still huge.  Accepting that the hideous bureaucracy isn’t going anywhere any time soon, it would be better to make it clear to people who they need to contact with what information and how.  Then I can send one email (or better still an RSS feed)* to all the relevant departments and I can be sure that the data they get is accurate and that they actually get it – it’s my data, after all, and I firmly believe that a state employee does not have a role as an intermediary for my data.
3. The basic principle of the government sharing data between departments is fraught with problems.  At best it’s paternalistic and at worse it’s the stuff of Big Brother nightmares.  Sure, our current government might not be organised enough to actually make use of the data shared between departments, but it sets us on a dangerous path in which ultimately any information about me can be shared between departments and quangos – I don’t get a say in who gets what and what they do with it.  To some that sounds over-dramatic but there are others who have seen the effects of regimes that do this in their lifetime.

In short, Tell Us Once is a shonky fix for a bigger problem.  It does not give individuals control of their own data and it has very scary potential.

*Yes, some people don’t have access to email or RSS (though they are few) but we have to start somewhere.

by John Stanton, for Evan Carmichael.

The case is a reminder that employers may be prosecuted for risks to the occupational health and safety of their employees, even where one of their staff introduces unsafe work practices contrary to existing safe work practices and without the knowledge and approval of management. Employers need to develop robust corporate governance regimes to manage this risk.

This article outlines the case and then considers appropriate OHS risk management steps, as part of robust corporate governance regimes, to uncover and prevent the development of unofficial work practices.

Inspector Barber v Viscount Rotational Mouldings Pty Ltd

The recent Industrial Court of New South Wales case of Inspector Barber v Viscount Rotational Mouldings Pty Ltd emphasised that employers can still be responsible for the unsafe work practices of their employees, even where the employer did not create, authorise or endorse those practices.

Two employees at Viscount Rotational Mouldings (VRM), a plastic mouldings manufacturer, were killed when they attempted to release a plastic water tank from its metal mould by inserting compressed air through a breather hole in the tank, causing it to eject and strike them. The work practice was one that the production supervisor had used at a previous employer and introduced to VRM after he joined it. The production supervisor subsequently trained the staff in the work practice, which he had been using without incident since 1995. The method was not one which VRM had authorised. In fact, VRM had in place a number of steps to deal with a plastic mould which had become stuck in a metal mould. These steps were to: allow extra time for cooling; rotate the arm until the mould releases; wriggle the product using hand force; hit around the perimeter of the tank using a nylon mallet; cool the product by having cool air circulate around it using compressed air; and use a saw to cut out the plastic product from the mould. However, while VRM had these processes in place, none of them was written down, and each was conveyed verbally from a supervisor to the other workers. On the day of the fatal accident, the employees concerned used none of these procedures in the removal of the water tank from its mould.

VRM was prosecuted for failing to ensure the health and safety of its employees. It pleaded guilty and was convicted and fined $162,500. The Court stated that it was “difficult to comprehend” how the technique of using the air pressure hose to de-mould product, utilised openly in the workplace on many occasions prior to the incident, was able to escape scrutiny and remedial action. That is, VRM should have taken greater care to inform itself of the real practices its employees used to perform the work…(continue reading)

Ok, eerst even met de billen bloot…. Een jaar of twee geleden keek ik met enig ongeloof naar de eerste Twitteraars die zich niet ver van mij verkneukelden aan hilarische teksten, vaak met moeite in de 140 beschikbare karakters gepropt. Ik heb het toen ook zelf geprobeerd, in het kader van ‘wat de boer niet kent….’. En voor mij werkte het toen niet. Nog niet, zo blijkt nu. Want hoewel ik me niet onder de categorie ‘Hardcore Twitteraars’ kan plaatsen vind ik het doorgaans erg gezellig om even mijn ‘gezicht te laten zien’ in de grootste virtuele kroeg ter wereld. En vaak denk ik nog aan een presentatie van Jim Stolze op Picnic’08, hij zei toen de treffende woorden “People need to interact in order to feel alive“. Mooie logica die alles zegt over het succes van sociale media, en dus ook over Twitter.

Is Twitter nou een succesvol kanaal geworden? Het antwoord is een eenvoudig doch volmondig ‘JA’, en de voorbeelden uit de VS laten zien waar het de komende jaren ook in Nederland naartoe zal gaan. En omdat we bij RapidSugar heel veel doen met e-mailmarketing wil ik ook graag even reflecteren op de convergentie van deze twee prachtige, dialogische kanalen. Daarover later meer…

Maar eerst even een voorbeeld!

Het voorbeeld – Dell Outlet (@DellOutlet op Twitter, 1,007,260 volgers!)
Laat ik maar meteen met de deur keihard in huis vallen: Dell verdient een flinke zak extra geld met Twitter! Via de Dell Outlet worden zogeheten ‘refurbished’ producten verkocht (krasje erop, teruggestuurd en gerepareerd, etc…) met grote kortingen, en worden ook tijdelijke acties gepromoot. De case ‘Dell’ zoals deze zelfs op de Business case pagina van Twitter zelf wordt beschreven heeft al meer dan $3 miljoen aan omzet binnengebracht. Dat is dus geen grap of ’sociaal experiment’ meer te noemen.
En Dell doet nog veel meer via Twitter, door middel van het aanmaken van een hele serie Twitter-accounts zijn ook veel sales en support kanalen geopend naar het bedrijf. Ik zou zeggen, aanschouw de veelheid aan Dell-gezichten op Twitter en oordeel zelf!

Goed, nu even over e-mailmarketing. En ook hier is Dell aardig bezig als het om de combinatie met Twitter gaat. Deze ‘tweet’ zegt eigenlijk al genoeg:

Dell stopt dus digitale actiecoupons in haar ‘Outlet eMail Updates’ en promoot deze vervolgens via Twitter. Slim? Ja, dat is best slim eigenlijk. Dat zouden meer bedrijven moeten doen! Nu ken ik de subscribe cijfers niet van deze ‘eMail Updates’, maar ik kan me er wel iets bij voorstellen. Dell, goed gedaan (en dat zegt een ‘hardcore’ Apple fan!).

Twitter dus,  en wat doen de Nederlandse bedrijven ermee?
Ja, dat is dus een beetje de vraag. Ik heb even een klein ‘onderzoekje’ gedaan naar een aantal Nederlandse bedrijven en hun Twitter beleid. In het algemeen kan er gezegd worden dat het nog niet leeft….een greep:

ING & Twitter?
Nee, niet echt. ING schijnt Twitter wel te ’scannen’ maar verder komen ze nog niet. Toch schokkend is dat Twitter een onbekende zoekterm is in de verder uitstekende zoektool op ING.nl (bovenaan).

KPN & Twitter?
Ja! Ze zitten erop. 276 volgers. Helaas nog geen enkel bericht van KPN. Spannend….

Bol.com & Twitter?
Ja! 75 volgers, paar berichten. Laatste van mei 2009. Waarom niet het fraaie Bomvol magazine hier promoten?

KLM & Twitter?
Rustige boel. 1 Tweet, 116 volgers.

UPC & Twitter?
Yepz. Het webcare team zit erop, en zeker niet onaardig wat ze hier doen. Bijna 1000 volgers en een aantal mensen die support verlenen via het account. Hun bevindingen met Twitter zijn openlijk gedeeld via Slideshare, mooie transparantie van UPC. Complimenten. Wel een gemiste kans, op de klantenservice pagina van UPC.nl zien we nergens Twitter. UPC, kijk hier eens naar Dell!

Telfort & Twitter?
Zij gingen Dell achterna, zoals de Emerce schreef begin dit jaar. Voordeelacties van Telfort. Aardig idee. Net als bij UPC wordt er onder het kopje ‘Contact met Telfort’ op Telfort.nl niets gezegd over de mogelijkheid om Telfort te volgen via Twitter.

Vacanceselect.nl & Twitter?
Twitter moet interessant kunnen zijn voor de reisbranche. Ik denk aan ’superlastminutes’, bijvoorbeeld. Het twitteraccount @vacanceselect bestaat wel maar vertoon geen enkel teken van leven… Nog niet in ieder geval.

Ok, het gemiddelde Nederlandse bedrijf is nog niet Twitter verslaafd. Naar mijn mening is dit een kwestie van tijd, ik vermoed een doorbraak in 2010! Wie zal de eerste Twitter hit scoren?….JIJ?

Nog even terug naar e-mailmarketing en Twitter. Ik kwam een bijzonder aardig artikel tegen op de blog ‘Anything goes Marketing’. 10 Tips over e-mailmarketing in combinatie met Twitter, met een focus op B2B. Goed verhaal, en de tips reiken wat mij betreft verder dan alleen B2B, ook voor B2C zijn de meeste uitstekend toepasbaar. Een van de tien tips wil ik toch even expliciet noemen: voeg aan al je formulieren (bestellen, inschrijven, etc..) naast NAWE en andere gegevens het veld ‘Twitter naam’ toe. Zo simpel. Maar indien goed uitgevoerd zo krachtig (ik denk aan een automatische follow-procedure via een van de vele Business Twitter Suits).

Ja, Twitter in combinatie met echt persoonlijke online middelen zou nog wel eens heel groot kunnen worden. Ook in Nederland…. Laat ik hier over een half jaar nog eens op terugkomen….

Zo. Nu even terug naar Twitter…. Ah! Collega @bartfuzzle twittert foto’tjes Tsjechië…gezellig!

Cheers!
Marco

Identity control needs to be user-driven, not just user-centric: VRM is the reciprocal of CRM; http://tr.im/rXmb

This is a variation on the theme I cover periodically called Vendor Relationship Management (VRM).

The variation here is that the Vendor must place the consumers product up for bif from competition when they are considering changing the terms, such as interest rates.  The consumer would then have the choice of accepting the change, or accepting one of bidders. (HT Payments News)

A Market Test for Credit Cards

We have an alternative solution, employing a market test of a proposed change. At the time when the lender proposes a unilateral change, it would be required to put the existing account balance up for auction on a LendingTree-like service that would allow other credit card issuers to bid for a chance to issue a new card and take over the existing balance.

Borrowers wouldn’t be forced to switch to the auction winner. They’d just be given the option. When an existing credit card issuer proposes a rate increase, it would be required to pass on the terms of the winning bid and a comparison with its own terms, and the borrower would decide whether he wanted to make the switch.

The Focusrite Saffire PRO 24 DSP is Focusrite’s latest 16 In / 8 Out FireWire audio interface, featuring real-time DSP-powered tracking and mixing solutions tailor-made for the modern home studio environment.

Alongside DSP-powered Compression and EQ for latency-free tracking and ‘comfort’ reverb, is VRM; a Virtual Reference Monitoring technology that lets you hear your mix in different environments, through different speakers and from different positions, all just using headphones.

VRM makes Saffire PRO 24 DSP the only interface capable of simulating over one hundred different monitoring scenarios through your headphones. VRM overcomes the major obstacle for mixing with headphones by giving you multiple perspectives on your mix, as if you were listening through speakers. Indeed, noise levels from mixing through speakers can make it impossible for most to mix at home, especially late at night; with VRM, you can mix anytime, anywhere. Using any pair of monitoring headphones, VRM let’s you choose your mixing environment from a living room, a bedroom studio, or a professional studio. You then simply choose where you are positioned in that room and what speakers you listen through.

Saffire PRO 24 DSP draws on twenty-five years of mic-pre excellence. The two Focusrite pre-amps capture every subtle nuance of your sound whilst ensuring low noise and distortion. Meanwhile, high-quality digital conversion and JetPLL™ jitter elimination technology ensure pristine audio quality as your audio flows between the analogue and digital domains.

Saffire PRO 24 DSP’s other real-time DSP-powered effects also exhibit Focusrite’s uncompromised approach to audio quality. EQ, Compression and ‘Comfort’ Reverb sonically derived from the ‘Focusrite Plug-in Suite’ (also included as VST/AU plug-ins) are all integrated within the Saffire Mix Control software, providing professional latency-free tools for tracking and monitoring.

Alongside the two Focusrite pre-amps are a host of I/O options; two additional analogue inputs, six analogue outputs, ADAT inputs (for expanding the interface with, for example, Focusrite’s OctoPre), stereo SPDIF I/O and 2 virtual ‘loopback’ inputs for routing digital audio between software applications – ideal for capturing online audio. Front panel 5-LED metering for each analogue input offers accurate viewing of levels.

Saffire Mix Control, the zero-latency 16 x 8 DSP Mixer/Router software provided with Saffire PRO 24 DSP, sets a new standard at this price point for audio interface control. It features flexible output routing and monitoring, as well as intuitive one-click set-up solutions designed to help you track, monitor and mix as easily as possible.

Saffire PRO 24 DSP also comes with all the additional tools needed to start making music right away. These include the latest version of the Focusrite Plug-in Suite, which provides a significant upgrade from your standard sequencer effects. The suite includes Compression, Reverb, Gating and EQ VST/AU plug-ins.

Focusrite’s established Xcite+ bundle is also included. The bundle features Ableton Live 7 Lite (for all your production, performance and compositional needs), Novation’s Bass Station soft synth and over 1 gig of royalty-free samples from Loopmasters and ‘Mike the Drummer’.

Saffire PRO 24 DSP combines two award-winning Focusrite pre-amps and a host of other I/O with VRM Virtual Reference Monitoring, integrated real-time tracking and monitoring effects, and easy-to-use mix control software. Together, they deliver the most comprehensive professional compact music-recording interface to date.

The Saffire PRO 24DSP will have an SSP of £299.99 (Inc Vat)

VT4 heeft van de VRM (De Vlaamse Regulator voor de Media) een boete gekregen voor het filmpje waarin Hans Otten de George Clooney in zichzelf naar boven haalt. Omdat Martini Brut zo prominent in beeld komt, oordeelde de VRM dat dit een reclamespot is en geen kwestie van sponsoring.

De boete bedraagt 2.500€, wat me meteen nieuwsgierig maakt: hoeveel zou VT4 verdiend hebben aan dit spotje?….

I simply love this post at RWW.  The post is about how FaceBook could turn on the power of their userbase to the benefit of consumer power.  I have long been a fan of VRM and at the same time at something of a loss to see how it could be initiated.  Then I read this post, and new lights went on.

The post is about FaceBook, but it is less about them, than it is about business models for dot.com companies with large userbases who insist on following tradigital advertising models. The whole ‘We have lots of eyeballs so lets monetise’ thing.

[disclaimer]  I have long believed that adwords, adsense, and any such interruptive advertising model has only a limited online lifespan, and represent a termproary interlude that keeps SEO types busy in these formative internet times, until we get to the next level whereby the consumer is truly in charge.  Only then will I accept a Web X.0 increment.

I look at myself and my online behaviours, and maybe I am in the minority, but maybe thats because the tools I use are not well understood.  My online experience sees almost no ads except when I choose to do so, and I do so choose.  I see them in emails I deliberately subscribe to, I see them when I seek them out, but my standard web experience is protected by pop up blockers and AdBlock Plus.  If in doubt how many have PVR’s at home, and skip tv ads?

Its not that I don’t want to lknow about products and services.  I just don’t want to know when I am reading, listening and watching things on the web.  This is the power and the promise of the internet medium;  it has the power to be better.  I listen to Sirius Radio for similar reasons; I want to hear music not ads.

Enter Vendor Relationship Marketing (VRM).  Terrible title, but in essence VRM says you will decide when a merchant (vendor) may contact you, ie advertise to you.  Until then stay away. Here is one of the more provocative catchphrases from “The ClueTrain Manifesto” which forsaw this problem and solution 10 years ago.

The challenge is how to move from an interruptive model in radio, television, phone, mail, and now internet to VRM which would require a seismic and complete shift.

“be prepared to be misunderstood for long periods of time.” – Jeff Besos

Back to the RWW post.  Bernard does a nice job of pointing out that FaceBook is taking too long to develop a business model, and is taking longer than Google did.  He notes that it will take a radical shift in order to do that, and that shift will be misunderstood, but give it time.

I agree with Bernard.  The reason FaceBook and traditional advertising doesn’t work is because no-one wants to hear an ad in the middle of a conversation.  However FaceBook has the other benefit (some say weakness) of being a walled garden and Google cannot see inside.  He notes this is the perfect oportunity to turn that walled garden into a powerful tool on behalf of the consumer.  When they feel the need for a product, service or information on them, FB users could, through an RFP (Request for Purchase) process make it known to vendors, even to the point of naming their price or price range.  Vendors could respond.

This turns the ad model on its head.  The playing field is levelled between the merchant and the consumer.  If the merchant comes on stronger than the consumer wishes, or tries to return to old ways, the consumer can ignore them.

Relevance to Bankwatch:

Consider banking – every day thousands of RFI’s emanating from VRM services, and the banks can compete on them, all electronically.  Clearly this requires formats, standards, and defined processes but it makes an interesting future world view, and one that FaceBook could kick off.

I spoke at VRM Hub this week about the implications of VRM on the public sector.  If you’re new to the idea of VRM (Vendor Relationship Management) then you should check out this nifty explanation by Adriana Lukas.

I thought it would probably be best to start with trying to figure out what I mean by ‘the state’, since we could be talking about a variety of bits of the spaghetti of government.  In fact, the full list of all the different bits are on the Direct Gov website.  There’s a prize if you can find the weirdest bit of government.  I’m also thinking that in some cases charities or voluntary sector organisations could count as ‘the state’ since they are often grant funded by the government and therefore do their bidding.

The big question is why VRM matters for the state – there’s lots of good stuff about how it can help us transact with companies better but not much out there on how it can help us improve the balance in our relationship with government institutions.  I think it’s crucial.  For a start off, interaction with the state is complex and you can’t take control.  We have little choice over how our data is used or kept safe (missing memory stick, anyone?) and we never have a complete picture of all our interactions.

We can be residents, citizens, customers, clients, patients, victims, criminals, volunteers and donors to name just a few, and we can be all of those things simultaneously.  In some cases, lives are at stake.  If we could understand more about our interactions with the state then we’d become better citizens – more informed people can take better decisions and maybe even provide for themselves, easing pressure on an already burdened system.

I nearly typed ‘broken system’ then because just the thought of introducing the idea of VRM to the public sector is not for the fainthearted.  There are lots of hurdles, from the extreme risk aversion (AKA ‘blame aversion’) of officials (‘what if no one shares their data with us????!!’) through to worries about digital inclusion (‘we shouldn’t adopt new ways of engaging digitally when there are still some poor/old/disabled people who don’t have computers or broadband’).

There is also the difficulty of going too fast.  I know – fast isn’t usually the problem with government.  But I’m very nervous about the rush to ’scale’ VRM before any tools have been properly built or adopted.  We had some debate at the VRM Hub session about how you could authenticate your bits and bobs like your passport, birth certificate, driving licence and soforth in order to make it easier to transact with the government.

While it’s obvious we will need a way to do this, I think it’s too soon to start trying to invent those ways now.  I’m more interested in people being able to tell their local council their preferences, ideas, suggestions, needs and views and for the council to really listen to what people are saying and then design services accordingly.  Maybe once the state is used to interacting with citizens on their own terms we will start to see entirely new ways of transacting, and only then will we be ready to design solutions to help this more balanced relationship to scale.

While there are undoubtedly challenges to bringing VRM tools to bear on the state, there are also some open doors.  I think VRM will save state institutions money – possibly through having less of a need to store data (since we will be the source of our data); probably through deleting many of the pointless consultation teams that exist throughout local authorities and departments; but definitely through more accurate service design.

Another opportunity is the increasing acceptance that the government might actually need to have a relationship of sorts with its citizens – most recently expressed through the delightful ‘duty to involve‘ placed upon councils, which makes talking to people a legal requirement.  I tend to think that if you have to rely on a law to make that happen then you’ve already lost the battle, but at least it’s bringing questions of how best to talk to people to the fore – make way for social media and of course, VRM.  And with faith in political institutions at an all time low, there’s never been a better opportunity to introduce a radical re-think of the relationship between people and state.

If you’re interested in VRM and want to find out more, you should totally come along to the next VRM Hub meeting in June.  They usually happen on the last Thursday of the month in central London, and you will find details and sign-up here nearer the time.

I like this thing.  It’s an unofficial place where people can tell the government’s new Digital Engagement Director what they would like his task list to look like.

There’s lots on the list about freeing up data and getting government to be more open – I’d love to say DUH, because I think that’s kind of obvious, but alas we still need to say it.  We need to free up the  data sets so developers can use them creatively and make sites people will actually use.

If only we could go further, though.  I want to see the data that the government has about me – from my medical records through to my CRM record with Camden Council, my Congestion Charge journeys as well as my tube and bus journeys, every image of me on CCTV, even.  I could benefit from this information.  I could learn stuff about my travel habits, for example, and start to move around the city more efficiently.  I could cross refer my medical records with my dietary and exercise information to manage my health.  I could find out when and why I have contacted the council over the last few years and start to become a better informed resident, perhaps even pre-empting when the lids of my recycling boxes get stolen to be used as a makeshift sledge during snowy weather so I don’t have to order new ones every year.

Ever hopeful (?!) I’ve stuck my wish on the Digital Engagment Director’s list of Things To Do.  Give it a few votes if you fancy.

Plebble manages feedback about companies and organisations online. Now managing customer complaints on the web is not new, I mean I’ve previously posted about what happened when I had a wee rant on Twitter once and that seems to be more and more common these days, but this new site has got me excited.

It’s not just another channel for ‘Disgruntled of Tunbridge Wells’ to spout bile on. Plebble is managing those conversations in a number of ways and converting dialogue into opportunity by providing businesses with  feedback and access to customers.

The democratisation of the web has already come and revolutionised the way we do business. More and more customers are turning to the web to leverage their consumer power. The days are fading when brands ask me how to “stop bloggers saying mean things” and even more are looking at how best to nurture conversations.

Plebble brings together some of the best elements of online customer feedback and takes into account there will always be some brands, big and small, that:

• nobody wants to hang out with on a brand site or in social spaces like Facebook
• will mainly get negative mentions online (in some sectors, happy customers are quiet customers)
• are strapped for cash to resource online CRM

This is true “e-mocracy”, as Prebble calls it, with a framework to prevent it descending into some Lord of the Flies style brand persecution. I like it.

P.S. British Gas, I am watching you…

Last Sunday I headed down to the Sun Microsystems building for another VRM event in London. This time it was called “VRM Hub Open Space” and the objective of the session was to participate and listen to ‘participant-sourced’ conversations about VRM. Lloyd Davis did a splendid job of explaining the Open Space method to newbies like myself and thus the afternoon was both pleasant, argumentative and informative. To a certain extent this was a follow-up to November’s VRM event (Unlocking the See-Saw) primarily because a large number of the attendees had been present at the earlier event so, in a way, certain conversations picked up where they left off last time.

VRM interests me because it is a grass roots movements that is promoting an alternative to what I call the “traditional entrepreneurship model” and provides an approach that enables entrepreneurs to be more ethical in their ventures. But what made the event really interesting was not that it matched my personal ethos. Rather it was the sheer variety of ideas and approaches that a relatively small group of people brought to the table. Topics discussed ranged from public sector to mobile operators, from social media to privacy, identity and retail! My take-away value:

1. VRM Excites People
   Although mostly everyone present had their own interpretation and personal ‘VRM Utopia’ in mind, the level of enthusiasm and engagement was ubiquitous. Moreover, this was not some geek-centric or startup-centric or other niche-centric group of people. There were developers, bloggers, consultants (ahem), academics, entrepreneurs, writers and designers all agreeing about the fact that this is something worthwhile and worth sharing knowledge and ideas about.
2. VRM is Still Young
   Of course, what all these diverse people weren’t agreeing about was about how to go about implementing, promoting or otherwise advancing VRM. And this is not a bad thing. VRM is still young and in my humble and unschooled opinion, were the energies of the VRM community directed solely towards the realisation of one particular project the likelihood of success (define it how you will) would be drastically reduced.

This is the time to “let a thousand flowers blossom” and let VRM take root in a variety of different fields and soils. Sometimes not even necessarily outwardly shown as “VRM”. But the message will be out there, and, hopefully will take root.

At the very least, I hope to be able to contribute to this in some small way.

(Oh, if you’re new to VRM and have no idea of what I’ve been talking about read this.)