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Wikinomics

November 27, 2008

Blade applauds the idea behind a February 2009 conference on Wikinomics.

‘Wiki-what?’, says those for whom Web 2.0 is nothing but Woe 2.0.

Blade is happy to reveal that the Wikinomics Forum on 19 February at the Grange City Hotel will attempt to provide “a roadmap for doing business in the 21st century.” The blurb sets the scene nicely (though Blade, being a pedant, is not best pleased by the appearance of two rogue apostrophes):

As internet usage continues to grow and user generated content and collaboration explodes on an unprecedented scale, how can you make sure your business and Brands profit from this fundamental upheaval? This event is very commercially focused, aimed at CEO’s and CFO’s as much as Marketing Directors and Online Publishers. It will centre on how traditional collaboration has been superceded by virtual collaborations on an astronomical scale – and the ways in which companies can profit from this change as opposed to fighting against it or living in fear or ignorance of it.

There is also a rather apposite quote extolling the benefits of collaboration – one of the fundamentals tenets of the Web 2.0 worldview – for businesses. As A. G. Lafley, the CEO of Proctor & Gamble, puts it:

No company today, no matter how large or how global, can innovate fast enough or big enough by itself. Collaboration – externally with consumers and customers, suppliers and business partners, and internally across business and organization boundaries – is critical. Wikinomics reveals the next historic step – the art and science of mass collaboration where companies open up to the world.

Naturally enough, his comments apply to the Wikinomics book as much as to February’s conference, but either way, this is an event for the diary.

Barbados looms for US lawyers

November 26, 2008

Thanks to the intriguing On Being a Black Lawyer blog – commenced by American lawyer Yolanda Young on the day Barack Obama was elected US President Elect – Blade learns that the 6th Annual Retreat for the National Bar Association’s Young Lawyers Division takes place in May next year at the Bourgainvilleas Beach Resort in Barbados.

Barbados is a fine choice of venue, as Blade can confirm, but he can’t help but wonder whether a group of young lawyers choosing to retreat there is, in these perilous times, likely to have an impact analogous to the FT’s Christmas edition of its How To Spend It supplement.

Just in case you missed it: £67,500 will buy you a Ritz Fine Jewellery paraiba tourmaline ring, £49,610 secures a Chopard diamond-set pen, while a Parmigiani limited edition Kalpa XL Tourbillon watch is yours for just £135,000.

Credit crunch? Not at the FT – and not, it seems, among America’s young lawyers.

‘Copy-cat’ Nicola in copyright controversy

November 26, 2008

Nicola McLean, who has failed her driving test seven times and is currently wooing viewers across the nation on I’m A Celebrity, faces an unusual accusation of copyright infringement.

Click here to learn how the I’m a Celebrity star has roused the ire of Katie Price, aka Jordan.  As Yahoo’s TV Editor, whoever he or she might be, puts it: “Model/actress/singer/sportswoman/entrepreneur Katie Price has had a pop at I’m a Celebrity glamour girl Nicola McLean. In the Mirror newspaper, Katie claims Nicola has been imitating her mannerisms and behaviour on the show.”

It gets worse, for as Ms Price says: “It’s like she’s been studying old re-runs of the series I was in, and mimicking my behaviour. It’s uncanny.”

One for m’learned friends, no doubt.

Pictured: illustrative image of Nicola McLean (copyright all newspapers) as she infringes other celebrities’ image rights. Said not one news editor: “It’s an outrage, and has to be stopped.”

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