My New Moo

My New Moo, originally uploaded by epredator.

My new personal Moo cards arrived today

If you dont do it, the world will. Openstreetmap

Quite a few years ago I happened to explain to someone at a mapping agency that whilst I understood they had spent money and time creating mapping assets, and that cartography, rather like writing has been the preserve of a few with impact on many, that they really should prepare for the web and people just doing it for themselves.
Now with so many GPS enabled devices, and the whole web as a platform Web2.0 rise we start to see more things like this open source map of the world. We create the small bits of map that we need, in return for the small bits of maps other have created. Small is a relative term of course, as this is a fractal small, a self repeating pattern.
I checked out Openstreetmap, and my street (like on many of the main maps) is not there. Now of course I can plot it and add it and make this mapping more accurate than much of the paid for ones.

View Larger Map
This interest me on several levels, not least for having a world map which we will augment with data and images en masse. So, is your street on there?

12 seconds - whats the point of a metaverse evangelist?

I noticed a few people on twitter including @loudmouthman recording 12 second video clips on 12seconds. So he whizzed me an invite in to have a go.
It a quick live twitter video style. 12 seconds is an age and a blink of the eye at the same time. I usually do 1 take of things, but the fixed timing and immediate nature meant I had 3 goes instead :-)
I dont think my delivery will change the world yet, but I think I may do a few more.

Whats the point of a metaverse evangelist? on 12seconds.tv

Shopperdiscounts "scam" via interflora

A credit card event recently got me double checking my statements. I noticed a "shopper discounts" for £7.99 with a phone number by it on the statement. It turns out that I seem to have accidently opted into a montly payment scheme through using interflora to buy flowers.
The scheme does "send you emails" which probably look like spam. Having called them and complained and cancelled they are assuring me a refund, but there a few months payments on there.
How stupid to not see them on the statement, but these things happen.
Anyway, dont use interflora, dont click anything afterwards, do check you statements and do make sure the this shopperdiscounts legitimate but shady business stops.

Time to talk at VFWE08

The next big conference and expo for all things virtual world is happening in London in 2 weeks time. Its the second year of the Virtual Worlds Forum Europe
When the metarati gather there are always productive conversations and when you mix in the game companies too who knows where this will end up.
Anway, please come and talk or find me (or I will find you). Lots of things to discuss.

Last years event was very enjoyable a certain creative twist to this is very London and very Europe.
So come and see me at the expo or at the after show parties. Lots of excitement about the future to talk about.

My strengths

strengths, originally uploaded by epredator.

I recently took the strengthfinders 2.0 test, a study based on some gallup research to help people understand their strengths and take action in then. ( a close mentor and friend recommended it to me, you know who you are :) thankyou).
There are a whole stack of interesting questions in the test, some of which give some pause for thought.
The upshot though is as I would have expected. I think these describe me very well, and match who I see myself as. The first reccomendation is makes "Seek a career in which you will be given credit for and paid for your ideas, such as
marketing, advertising, journalism, design, or new product development."
Another interesting, and probably quite correct one is "Finish your thoughts and ideas before communicating them. Lacking your Ideation talents,others might not be able to "join the dots" of an interesting but incomplete idea and thus might dismiss it." which is something I have become aware of over the years. I like to strike a balance between the fully formed, obvious idea and the one that allows people to grow into it and make it their own. Anyway, I think this is a great book and test for anyone seeking to validate their values or discover them. I am just at the beginning of seeing what it says, but already have some insights.There are more details here you buy the book and get a code to access it, its not a free site, but the report you get is a suitably deep one.

Value of a personal brand

The last few weeks have proved very interesting in understanding perceptions of my personal brand inside various organizations and pieces of organizations. Some people say oh wow its you and you do that stuff, thats very valuable, we love it. Others say "meh" its not all that. The balance of great versus not so great is hardly a balance, its a 98% vote for me being president, versus a 2% get out of my face you are not all that. The odd thing is the distribution of that, and in a connected world the slew of influence that has over so many things.
Anyway, I am still busy enjoying the epredator and eightbar brand. Those that don't have had an impact on me and I am sure they feel wonderfully clever. I am nothing if not open, and openness is scary to many people. Oh whats he going to say now?
I know that some of the things I could say and could do might have a wonderful revenge quality, but in the long run its better to forgive and move on. Sh*t happens its would appear. No I have not got religion as such, still a metaverse evangelist, but I do live by a code of honour.
Enough of all that here is a brilliant article and film from Sky, featuring me and me for IBM's 50th celebration.
What I do for companies seems to generate press interest, and customer interest, maybe more so than a press advert. It is a bit unusual to be a walking personalized advert but maybe that is what evangelism is in the end. Just still hard to prove the value isnt it :) Of course the evangelist and strategist curse is, once you let people know what they need to do, they cant remember why they needed you in the first place.

Predator in bolts

Which one is the Monster?, originally uploaded by elemming68.

During elemmings birthday trip to London we found this in the basement of Selfridges. It's made if iron. It was a tad pricey, but maybe one day we can get one like it for the garden as it was stunning

An unusual week

This week back from Los Angeles, award in hand, has been very unusual. The award got written up on a UK intranet piece and then circulated in an old school mail shot that seems to reach a whole lot more people that maybe have not seen all the cool things going on.
I got lots of emails from some of the very cool people I have worked with and for in the past saying congratulations and well done on the impact I and we have had on virtual worlds.
It has also led to a greater than average number of hits on my linkedin pages by people with IBM at part of their descriptor (its quite anonymous but shows a trend). There are also a fair few other industries coming to have a look too.
I have not checked the webstats of the actual CV. It is always interesting to try an understand interest in a personal brand like epredator represents. Of course volume is far less important than the right people seeing and valuing something.
I also got some more media coverage because of the metaverse evangelist job title a piece in the finance section. Ok so it was having a little bit of a dig at having a crazy job title, but the title starts the conversations, explains what I do and also gets some media attention.
It was suggested that I change to Metaverse Oracle as a few things I had set the seeds of a while back have now sprung back into life. However having Oracle as a title at IBM just gets confusing.
As I often remind people I dont just make this Sh*t up, just make it look like I am sometimes.
Midweek saw a bit of a tradgedy in losing my entire laptop in a hardware failure. yes I have backups, but not for the past month. So the most recent, most important code, docs, ppt and archived emails look like they have passed on. I am not sure how long before I get a new machine or fixed machine, but it will mean the massive re-install. Not just working on one thing, or in one environment or even in one job means a whole load of things will need rebuilding.
I wont get much time next week as atleast 2 days are blocked out to talk to some major CIO's and press and academics visiting Hursley for the 50th celebrations. The presenters are a few IBM distinguished engineers, lab director, the country general manager and me.
I am also supposed to be documenting my past 2 years of everything I have done, every customer, conference, engagement etc to show the value of what I have been doing. Its a pity things like the award from the industry dont just count as that job done. Still a refelctive look back will just add to the ego and help me know my true value to the industry.
Mind you, if you are reading this and I have done something that made you think better of IBM, buy something or push forward with something then feel free to either comment, email me or preferably join the load of people who very kindly recommended me on linkedin over the past 2 years feel free to connect of course.

And the winner is

And the winner is, originally uploaded by epredator.

more about this over on eightbar but I picked up the award for virtual world innovation in the enterprise here in LA at the VW expo last night.
Veyr very happy to get this one on behalf of myself and IBM

Nothing beats real life?

IMGP3256, originally uploaded by epredator.

I just blogged over on eigthbar about the Augmented reality experience that is the Simpsons ride at universal in LA.
I was struck by another thought about real versus virtual. The crowd interaction and the fantastic performance and stunts of the Waterworld show was fantastic too. It is a "real" experience, but of course it is not real at all.
We can learn a lot from hollywood about immersion and about performance.
Some of this is real some is not, but it all blends into an experience. Its not just media or atoms, but something else in human experience.

A new phrase/ thing to suffer from - CCM

I just twittered I think I am suffering from Corporate Citizen Masochism nuff said :-)

Off to the west coast US - Hollywood beckons?

The few times I have flown over to the west coast USA it has been to the San Jose area or to San Fran. This usually leave sme with a tune in my head of either "I left my heart in San Francisco" or the joke spoof "I left my hat in Sam Frank's Disco". If not that then "Do you know the way to San Jose" (Bup bup buppa baaaa) etc.
This time though its LA. I seem to have got stuck with the Robbie William's tune from swing when you're winning. "I will talk hollywood will listen".

I maybe should be more worried about getting hassled for my predator Avie in SL.
Anyway, next week LA. the virtual worlds conference. Its going to be a hard week one way and another. Though I guess when I do my panel I will talk a somewhere quite close to hollywood will listen :-)

Claridges room 547

Claridges room 547, originally uploaded by epredator.

For Jan's birthday amongst other things I booked a couple of days in London at Claridges. For those of you not form around here it is a very famous, very posh hotel with a great reputation, and possibly the finest place in London to stay.
Amongst this finery there is also Gordon Ramsay's at Claridges so I also booked an evening meal there. Out table was not until 9:30 pm but well worth the wait.
Having checked in, after a couple of cocktails, had a bottle of champagne in the room and then ordered a famous Claridges high tea to the room we were feeling very good when it got to the time.
We popped and had another cocktail at the Fumiere bar drinking from Lalique crystal.
We were then whisked into the classic dining room, full of so many staff, yet so unintrusive and really not pretentious.
We started with a glass of champagne, whilst we checked the menu. We had some very fine bread sticks, more like mini loaves than those you normally get. With some very light dips.
The wine list is a telephone directory, full of some amazing prices. We are not wine buffs, but do like good food. We settled on ordering a Red Cab Sauvignon for a resaonble price. The menu itself is by no means as expensive as you might think. Not ot be uncooth and talk cost, but the a la carte is a set price. £70 a head for a 3 course meal. Now for one of the best restaurants in the world, and given you can easily spend £40 a head in a fried american food chain restaurant in London I think that is pretty darn good.
I cant remember all the fine detail on the menu, lots of sauce and garnish names. Usually I take photos of food and events, but this just needed to be remembered.
As a started I order a roast quail rissoto and grated truffle. Jan had Scallops. Both we perfect. My roast quail was so tasty it almost seemed wrong to eat anything afterwards. The rissotto was not a pile of dry rice, but more of a rice sauce or gravy. Perfectly balanced.
Before the main cause we got a sort of potato and brocolli mini cause. Served in a ramekin. The brocolli and potato sort of mashed, but not quite, a lovely texture. On the top was what I can only describe as a froth crossed with a mousse. It seemed to be potato. I have described it as firm version of the starch froth you get when you boil some potatoes, yet pure and white and set. I may be way off, it was a surprise course and we where quite food struck and occasion struck by then,
Jan's main course was Dover Sole. Two thick, juicy steaks of fish. They almost looked like they were not cooked, just fresh from the fish. The quality of the ingredient and freshness was obvious it sat on a stack of pink fir potatoes, artichokes, carrot and cardamon sauce.
Mine was a beautiful roast duck, the sliced duck breast was layered into what looked like a christmus pudding shape (if that makes sense) sat on a some shredded greens, so the juice had seeped down into that. With brichouttes and sweetcorn and truffle side.
Amazing..... real skill and a real difference from anything else I have ever had. up until now a Duck course at a restaurant in Paris called Roger the Frog (an accidental find but very well frequented by those in the know it turned out) had been my favourite meal. That was about 12 years ago. So this is very significant.
Before the dessert we were served a shot glass size cheesecake. Then by creme brulee arrived as did Jan's chocolate fondant. The creme brulee was not in a container, freestanding on the plate, perfectly formed and fantastic texture, with a raspberry sauce drizzled. Jan's chocolate fondant had honeycomb and and orange sauce. looked fantastic and tasted great too.
As it was Jan's birthday they then brought out a plate with a small light sponge cake, like a madelene. With a candle and Happy Birthday written on chocolate script across the plate.
We finished with coffee and I had a lovely smokey port.
By the time we finished we were practically the last out. We just charged it to the room and then went back to room 547 in the lift. The lift has a sofa bench and you seem to need to sit down.
So a fantastic meal, and for what its worth I can thoroughly recommend it if you are in London and can get a booking.
I think we will go again to the restaurant.
Next we need to go to Heston's Fat Duck with his 3 michelin stars and see what the competition is :-)
Happy 40th again Jan :-)

A great presentation on careers

This is well worth a few clicks through. Lots of it resonated with me :-)

Career Advice '08

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: advice career)

Sand turtle

Sand turtle, originally uploaded by epredator.

On our hols in france there was a "sand castle" building competition by the 3 dads. Being short of buckets, and prefering these sort of structures I made this sand turtle instead. I am quite proud of it as the light worked well for the flippers.
The rest of the pictures (though not with anyone else kids in yet as I have not asked if they mind) are here

Toribash meets james brown

I really like clever machinima. This one fits as I know how hard, yet brilliant toribash is to control. Basically think stop motion string puppets.

I thought Roo was off to the BBC?

It came to my attention today, (Thanks Michael our visitor from the US and Joel for finding it on Youtube), that Roo has not really gone to be a portfolio executive for social media at the BBC. I must say though this could be considered a step up from what we have been doing

Rooparture part 2

A crowd gathered to say goodbye. Roo felt the pace midway through, then it was done. (the final departure was slightly more drawn out than the 20 seconds of video :-) )

v8's in virtual worlds

v8_tauran, originally uploaded by epredator.

We have been chatting about needing a top gear style bbc version of the gadget show. Bascially with me doing a clarkson and strapping a V8 on everything. I am available to do the show should someone in the BBC be interested :-)