About a month ago I entered into the running to be Lucozade’s Social Media Reporter this Summer, covering each of their ‘Energy Challenges’ as they happen across the globe. Phase one was an initial email pitch that answered the question ‘why should we pick you?’
I threw some words together, detailing some of my social media credentials – or ‘whuffie‘ as my dear friend Vero calls it – and was soon after awarded a place in the next round.
Phase two stepped it up a bit. This time we had to create a ‘multimedia diary’ based around reporting on a physical activity.
The requirements were as follows:
One two minute video
Footage of the physical activity
Interview with the person undertaking the activity
Piece to camera introducing your diary
A written blog of no more than 150 – 200 words
10 photographs
With that I went off and spent the afternoon at a secret location with my good friend and neighbour, Richard Mills. I think you all know how that turned out.
“James Whatley meets: Richard Mills” got me through into the third and final round; a sit down face to face with the Lucozade team. Two hours later my phone rang.
“Hi James, we’d really like it if you could be the Lucozade Energy Challenge Social Media Reporter…”
That was two weeks ago.
My feet haven’t really touched the ground since.
The Lucozade Challenge is one big competition. You can enter right now. Each week winning a place to on one of the challenges for you and three of your mates.
There are five challenges in total and they are as follows:
Sandboarding in Namibia
Cattle ranching in Wyoming
White water rafting in Zambia
Yacht racing in the Caribbean
Glacier climbing in the Alps
Over the Summer, I’ll be blogging, tweeting and filming every single one of them… and I cannot wait!
A few months ago I posted Part One to discuss this question and its relation to the ‘always on’ generation that we seem to live in today. If like many others who find themselves working in this field, you are expected to be on call at every hour of the day…
Well no, let’s stop right there. Is it actuallyexpected?
Or is it the case that you simply feel obliged? You assume that that the expectation in there, when in fact it isn’t.
See?
I have written at length about the importance of humanity being at the heart of everything you do. The onus being placed on the term ‘being human‘ throughout my work is on purpose people.
The question asked above is not about the duality of Batman’s psyche, moreover about his pig-headedness about asking for help and his lack of self-forgiveness when he gets it wrong.
He is after all only human.
As are we all.
When things got tough the Bat brought in Robin and then soon after that, the Justice League. His skills, unique and awesome on their own, work considerably better when placed into a team of similar, like minded people (sharing an equal goal).
The point is, that developer guy that I mentioned?
He who I quoted way back when:
Sometimes, I find myself stuck in front of the laptop at like 10pm on a Sunday night. The kids are in bed, the wife isn’t far behind and there I am answering customer care questions over Twitter with some guy in Geneva! This isn’t my day job. I’m a developer. My question to you is Sir; when does Batman sleep?
This man, he cared about his company’s brand and (online) reputation so much that he took it upon himself to make things better on his own.
Much like the Caped Crusader, he fixed it himself, working solo and acting independently from his own company’s PR team and, just as Batman did with the Gotham City Police Department (GPD), both sides became infuriated.
However, it is written than the Dark Knight works best when he works with his friend and ‘colleague’, Commissioner Gordon, coordinating strategies that incorporate traditional routes & methods (like the GPD) as well as the new found tools of our erstwhile hero.
More things get done.
When I first started in this job, within weeks I was at loggerheads with the Director of Communications. Our very own Jim Gordon if you will. He wanted to vet every single messageand blog post that was to be written and sent out. A stand up argument ensued which ended with me simply saying:
Invent a box of words…
Put in everything I can use and take out everything I can’t.
Then leave the box with me.
It took some time, but we got there in the end.
There are laws and rules as well as traditional ways of enforcing or adhering to them.
However, these days there are ways to play, push up against and generally find new parameters to work within these rules.
Call it operating under the radar if you will.
Batman doesn’t kill.
Something which he is continually pushed on.
He doesn’t go looking for trouble (at least not in the traditional sense of the word), but instead works within rules.
First those he sets himself, then later within those set by others.
It is at this point where our super hero can pause, his allies know his work and can defend it in his absence.
Yes that’s right, his absence.
I started this post with the intention of highlighting the often over-looked ideal of humanity on both sides of the coin.
Corporations can be human but so can consumers.
Yes, it’s great to be on call 24hrs a day, seven days a week, but your customers are not robots. If you don’t get back to them on a Sunday night, they’ll understand.
It’s all well and good being human, but never forget everyone else is too.
Every day I meet new and exciting people.
Every day I come across fresh ideas that force me to look at the world with a fresh pair of eyes.
Every day someone or something challenges my way of thinking so much that I can only sit back and marvel as my imagination is stretched into whole new dimensions.
Last week ladies and gentlemen, I met Richard Mills.
Richard, or ‘Richie’ as he prefers to be known, is an extreme sportsman of the highest caliber. But, unlike any other extreme sportsman I have met before, Richard is a real live Suburban Warrior.
Adrenalin junkies are not new to me; I’ve leapt from planes, thrown myself down mountains and even taken the odd wake-board ramp from time to time… But Richie Mills? This is a man who takes it to the next level.
Filmed at a secret location in West London, the following video takes place on a normal Monday afternoon. Blindfolded en route, Rich explained to me the level of competition that goes into these kinds of events, his love for the sport and then, we arrived…
Remember one thing folks: Richard Mills is a trained professional.
Do not try this at home.
_____________________
All video shot and filmed on a Nokia N97.
All photos shot and uploaded with a Nokia N95 8GB.
They can be good, they can be awesome – some can even change the world.
But who owns them?
If your idea is shared with another, does that other then co-own it with you?
Your ideas maybe the most valuable things you ever, ever own. Guard them well and be careful with whom you share them with.
Something that maybe so obvious to you may not be as obvious to the next person.
Before opening your mouth next time, take a moment – pause, take a break and think.
How much do you value your time? Your ideas?
Is it the price of a coffee? Lunch? Dinner?
Or is it a day of work, a week maybe?
How much are you worth?
Writing this, as I am currently, in the bar of the ICA – home of the London Social Media Cafe – I am comforted by words of wisdom from my good friend Carl Jeffrey:
“Share your ideas and your dreams, you’ll be surprised how many people come out of the woodwork to help you – but make sure to hold off telling the full story until the end. Remember; genius has limits, stupidity has none.”
About six or seven weeks ago now, I said a sad goodbye and a fond farewell to Mobile Industry Review (MIR). My weekly column ‘Whatley Wednesday’ was at an end and the team’s online video counterpart, The MIR Show, was no more.
Post closure, Ewan kindly gave me an export of all my prior MIR work, which you can now find in the newly created Whatley Wednesday category on the right hand side of this page. Please feel free to browse at your leisure, there are some pieces in there that I am deeply proud of and I’m really happy that I’ve been able to preserve them.
Even still, I was left wondering where my mobile content was supposed to go. I’ve long maintained that I have three main streams of blogging output:
With one of those streams now closed, I wasn’t sure what to do. I could’ve started putting the content here, but I didn’t want to alienate any of my readers. I wasn’t sure you’d appreciate it to be honest. This blog isn’t about mobile news, views and opinion. It’s about – for me at least – starting interesting conversations.
The real question was; ‘what to do next?’ and, well ‘start something new’ was the immediate answer.
When it came to restarting Whatley Wednesday, I took up Rafe Blandford on his offer to write a piece for leading mobile site All About Symbian (AAS). Entitled ‘Should Gravity come down?’ the piece questioned the price of a particular Nokia Symbian app and on top of that, Nokia apps in general.
Hand on heart there were a few opportunities like the one above from Rafe, and originally I had planned to accept them all. Not out of greed or ego; I merely felt a certain sense of displacement or maybe homelessness. I figured that Whatley Wednesday could become a travelling road show of sorts (for want of a better comparison), each week resurfacing on a different publication and taking on a different subject matter.
That was the plan anyway.
However, in the furore surrounding my debut on AAS (seriously, check out the comments – all 67 of them), I questioned the validity of this idea and, when it came to writing up some thoughts about the incoming Nokia N97, I went against my instincts and published them here.
It was at this point that I realised that I needed my own mobile channel, something that I had (at least in part) ownership of and somewhere that I wouldn’t have to apologise for my own opinion. It turned out that I wouldn’t have to wait for long, as in the background, work had already begun on what was at that time only referred to as: ‘Secret Project X’.
So it was, the day after MIR announced its closure, and under the cover of darkness, three men met somewhere along London’s South Bank.
In a coffee shop not far from Hungerford Bridge – EAT I think it was, to be precise – Ben Smith, Dan Lane and I sat down to work out what our next steps were.
What I initially had pencilled in as a rather macabre and somewhat gruesome post-mortem turned very quickly into the conception of a new idea.
The general consensus was that we could rant and rave about how annoyed we all were, or, spend what little time we had planning our next moves.
It was unanimous.
We were going to build something new, really soon.
In the days and weeks that followed that fateful night, emails were exchanged, further meetings were had and plans were made. Further to that, a rough go-live schedule was put in place.
Vikki Chowney – mooted as a potential additional contributor at the initial meeting – was asked to join the three of us pre-launch. It also fell to me to reach out to the other remaining members of the old team; Samantha Kidd, Ricky Chotai and Jonathan Jensen. All of whom were immensely forthcoming with their support and immediately signed on.
Soon after Vikki joined us, on a late night conference call with the rest of the team, the members of Secret Project X finally agreed on a name.
That name was…
The Really Mobile Project
Interestingly, with a new moniker came too a new sense of direction and purpose.
Dan Lane pulled together some of our old MIR footage and excelled himself by putting together a rather awesome trailer. This short video (embedded above), which we made live one week after launching The Really Mobile Project (TRMP) holding page, was shared with the sole purpose of letting people know that no, this wasn’t the end and yes, we would be back.
Even more meetings followed, yet more emails were exchanged and TRMP was coming. By the time we put the trailer out, we’d pretty much made a promise that we intended to keep. Thing is, it turned out to be a lot harder than we first thought.
Building a site?
Gaining access to high quality equipment?
Finding the time to get all members of the team together to film content?
All of these things proved to be less than easy.
Two days before filming was due to kick off, the whole project was put on hold. The equipment wasn’t good enough, the site wasn’t right and on top of that, we had no content.
From the off we had all agreed that whatever it was that we ended up producing, it would be high quality. Our work at MIR had set the bar high and we knew that at the very minimum, we had to match it.
As any decent advisor will tell you; if you over promise and under deliver, failure will greet you with open arms.
So we took a step back and regrouped. What would we REALLY need to do to make this as good as we wanted it?
The project plan was re-written, a wiki was created, and tangible steps were taken to ensure that creating a quality site with even better output would be a nigh-on guarantee.
After all of this, on April 28th at approximately 3.00am, seven weeks since that initial coffee, The Really Mobile Project launched onto the (un)suspecting world.
Now, at long last, we finally have our own place on the web to talk mobile.
One of the things we noticed during our time in the wilderness was just how strong, passionate and caring the mobile community is. Keeping that firmly in mind, we established that from day one ‘Really Mobile’ would be about the conversation.
It’s the community that makes a site, so we want our readers and viewers to feel a part of something. 2009 is the year of conversation after all, right?
I’ve talked long enough and if you’ve made it this far, you have my thanks.
All I have left to say is this; if you follow me because you’re mad about mobile then please, get yourself over to The Really Mobile Project today.
It’s new, we’re still making changes and fixing bugs, but it’s out there.
This entry – originally written in long hand at around 32,000ft on April 30th – might explain why things have been quiet of late…
__________________________________________________________
It’s official. I’m on Holiday.
The last time I took any kind of break like this was in the gap between my last job and this one, some 20months ago in fact.
Sitting on this plane mere hours from my destination, eagerly awaiting my arrival, I look forward to days of Sun, sea and sand along with a smattering of sight-seeing & shopping.
The City of Angels is where I’m headed.
Plans ahead, although few in number, are making me smile; Dinner with friends, drinks with others.
Plenty to see, find and do and yet – there’s no urgency around any of it.
There is no rush.
There is no fuss.
There is only L.A.
And I like it.
Here’s to good food, damn good company and here’s to having a bloody nice time!
For the uninitiated among you, the MGoL does exactly what it says on the tin. Whether you work in the industry or not, if you like to get geeky when it comes to all things mobile then MGoL is the place for you.
We have a facebook group that you can join to stay up to date with each event and the current base has recently broken the 500 mark (and still growing).
We had our sixth (London-based) meetup a little while back and it was actually quite awesome.
Managing to secure a proto Nokia N86 for the attendees to play with on the way! Lovely stuff.
I digress.
The point is, I’m off to LA next week and, to celebrate, the Mobile Geeks of London is hosting its second annual ‘MGoL: On Tour‘ event.
On the evening of Thursday May 7th May at The Cat & Fiddle, Los Angeles, the Mobile Geeks of London or should I say the “Mobile Geeks of LA” (#MGoLA), will be meeting for an evening of sun-drenched mobile chatter, sharing of across-the-pond knowledge and of course, general mobile geekery.
The Time: 6:30pm onwards The Date: Thursday May 7th The Place:
I know most of the Mobile Geeks of London are, by definition, NOT based in Los Angeles.
But some of you reading this might be, or you may someone who knows someone… You get the idea!
Browsing through my Google Reader this morning, I came across this article from the guys over at NokiaUsers.net reporting that Vodafone has just confirmed a July release date for the Nokia N97 here in the UK.
You can read more about the handset over on Vodafone’s dedicated N97 page, but needless to say, this announcement is very good news indeed.
As some of you may or may not know, I am a card-carrying Vodafone member, I have been for some time and, upon hearing that the N97 was en route to my network of choice, I am very happy indeed.
Since it was first announced at Nokia World in December, the initial buzz has been largely positive.
In fact, I remember putting virtual pen to paper at the time and exclaiming how much the the prospect of this handset excited me; even going as so far to say:
“I firmly believe that the Nokia N97 is the replacement for my N95 8GB.”
However, as I mentioned, I wrote that at the tail end of last year and since then?
Well, some things have changed.
Since Nokia World, not only have has there been several opportunities for me to have hands on time with the N97, but also Mobile World Congress (MWC), has come and gone. This conference, previously known as ‘3GSM’ and held in Barcelona each February, is the largest telecommunications event in the world and this year saw the unveiling of the Nokia N86.
This 8 megapixel beauty took me completely by surprise at MWC, and although originally pitched as the successor to the much-overlooked Nokia N85 (the N86 test model above was in fact labelled ‘N85 8MP’ on its debut in Barcelona), to my mind the N86 is the true replacement for the N95 8GB.
Why?
I carry two phones. I have done for some time now and I have no doubt that this habit will carry on into the future. My current ‘handset strategy’ is made up of the aforementioned N95 8GB which acts as my personal device, and a Nokia E71 as my work/business phone. Whenever I’m testing new devices I always, always swap out my E71 and swap in whichever piece of gadgetry I happen to be reviewing (the latest of which being the Nokia 5800 Xpress Music).
However this was not the case with the Nokia N86. Two weeks after Mobile World Congress, just in time for MGoL VI in fact, I happened to find myself in possession of said 8MP wonder and I was that impressed I instantly made it my personal device of choice (if only for the few days that I was able to test it anyway).
This. Speaks. Volumes.
If you’ve read any of my mobile stuff in the past you’ll know how much I love my N95, it’s certainly been through the wars over the years and for any device to come anywhere near taking its mantle, it has to be something pretty special.
The N86 is that phone.
The N97, as wonderful as it is, to my mind could have well been labelled the ‘E97′. What with the full qwerty keyboard and ‘communicator series’-like design, the N97 bears more relation to the E90 than to any Nseries phone I’ve ever seen. When I read that Vodafone were going to be shipping the N97 this coming July, I immediately got on the phone and registered my interest. Fortunately it turns out that I am due an upgrade around the same time as the N97 is scheduled to release.
Fantastic.
But that’s not all…
While I was the phone with Voda, I also enquired after the N86…
“It’s not one I’ve heard of Mr Whatley” …came the reply.
“Oh, would you mind checking for me anyway? I work in mobile you see and I really like the look of the N86, it has an 8MP camera and well, it’s very similar to my N95 8GB…”
“Oh here it is Mr Whatley, I’ve found it on our systems.”
“You have?!”
“Yes. Nokia N86. Got it. Now… Ah.. Ok.”
“Yes, yes, what is it?”
“Well it is here, but it has a question mark next to it.”
“Oh. Is that bad?”
“Oh no Mr Whatley, it just means we’re still testing it. I can’t confirm that we are going to get the N86 in stock but I can tell you that we have it here internally and we’re testing the software to make sure it works correctly “
“Really?!”
“Yes Mr Whatley. While I can’t go on record and say that it’s definitely coming, we are still testing. I can tell you that nine times out of ten, when it’s testing, it normally means we’ll be getting it sooner or later.”
“That’s great news, thanks!”
“You’re very welcome Mr Whatley, thanks for calling Vodafone.”
So there you have it. The N97 is coming to Vodafone in July and, from the sounds of things, the N86 won’t be too far behind it.
This has been a long time coming…
It took some time, but we got there in the end.
They can be good, they can be awesome – some can even change the world.
About six or seven weeks ago now, I said a sad goodbye and a fond farewell to Mobile Industry Review (MIR). My weekly column ‘Whatley Wednesday’ was at an end and the team’s online video counterpart, The MIR Show, was no more.
