A Funnelweb World

Seattle photos

Here are some photos I took when in Seattle last week. 

The first Starbucks store in the world

The Starbucks store was tiny, no seating and of course quite crowded with tourists. 

It is in the historic Pike Street Market area, which is on the waterside. Because its a heritage area, Starbucks couldn’t change the logo of it, which is why it is brown. 

They were selling all the usual Starbucks stuff but it was too late in the arvo for me to have a coffee - maybe next time.

Amazon’s global HQ is in an old medical centre on top of a hill overlooking Seattle. We didn’t visit this building but we spent two days in their other building which is near Union Station and Seattle’s soccer stadium.

That is where Amazon Enterprise Services are - you know, the services they provide for merchants, affiliates and re-sellers. There’s not a lot to indicate its “Amazon” apart from some really good posters on the wall, which illustrated their processes. And being a process person, sadly I spent lots of time reading them. 

The Amazon logo is also displayed here and there, at the entrance and so on, but having been to Yahoo’s HQ in London, I think Yahoo displays more of their livery than Amazon does.

If I get to go back to see them again, I’ve been promised that I will get to meet some of the developers working on our web site, which would be excellent. This time around, I got to meet various Amazon project managers that I will be working with.

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Surfin’ NSW

Seattle was great - met some of the Amazon guys that I’ll be working with in the coming year and they all seem nice. Also had a fun time with my manager and the Amazon UK guys we went over with and feel I know them a lot better now, which will make for an even better working relationship, I’m sure.

Back yesterday feeling knackered but have to say, my impression of BA has gone up somewhat after this trip. Very impressed with their service and managed to sleep most of the flight home.

All is well on the home front, and my threat before I went away (to throw everything out of the garden room if it wasn’t put up in the loft by the time sdf went away to Macc next week) seems to have worked. Got home to find everything moved out of it, some of it boxed up and some piled up to be put onto ebay. And sdf is madly working away at turbo listing it as I write. Maybe I ought to be more assertive more often

Did some thinking while away and have decided to set Hector a task to find me a nice beach front apartment somewhere on the Northern NSW coast, maybe around Coffs. Nothing extravagant - just big, clean, with ocean view, off-street parking, internet access and within easy walking distance (carrying a surfboard) to a beach. Nirvana!

For the next few years, sdf and I can use it as a holiday home and when we aren’t using it, it will be available to family and friends. Decided that there’s no point piling up cash in a bank account, might as well make better use of it - besides, not sure I trust UK banks much these days. Hopefully, he’ll have found a bargain for me in time for next summer’s holiday.

Also decided that I have almost had enough of living in London. Well, I’ve been here over 19 years now so it was only a matter of time. At this moment, thinking we will probably ride out this recession, wait until the olympics have been and gone and then start packing. Massive massive ebay sale coming up! By then, the Australian goverment should have also grown up and started to recognise civil partnerships so that its easier for sdf to get in - I hate doing things illegally but if we have to, we’ll have to.

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Off to the Amazon

Ah……….  a bank holiday weekend (= public holiday for you Aussie readers). And no better way to start it than with a curry, beer and dvd. No particular plans for it, just relaxing, reading, playing with giz and pip, driving sdf to Bromley - she wants to test out her 20% discount card, a bit of wii’ing and maybe doing a bit of DIY (a never - ending job in a house that is over 150 years old).

Oh, and a bit of work.

Yes, work - I’m off to Seattle next week with my manager to meet some Amazon guys and talk process, plans and progress. So I have a bit of research and planning to do, which means I will be working on a bank holiday. But I don’t actually see it as “work” so its cool,  as its really very interesting, understanding the sorts of things that are planned for the web site and doing some thinking about how they could be delivered quicker. Some may call it a road map, I call it just getting things done in a logical, efficient and cost effective manner. Quite obvious, innit??

And so amazing to firstly have been given the opportunity by M & S to do this after only 3 weeks in the job and secondly, to be meeting with Amazon and in their home town. Another experience to add to my collection of wonderful things I’ve done courtesy of working in the UK. I feel really honoured to have been considered for the trip and really excited about it all. But I need to prepare - hence the weekend working.

Its a very short trip - literally a flying visit as I will be out of the UK for less than 72 hours. I just hope I can get it together for the main day as I am due to give a presentation and provide various updates on things.

And so work is great. I hate to tempt fate but at this point I can say even more that it was a great decision to join them. M & S are definitely a good company to work for from what I’ve seen so far. And the people I’ve met and are working with are so nice that I’m starting to get suspicious that I’m in some sort of tv show like the Truman Show or something. There must be a “pain in the arse” lurking somewhere but I haven’t met them yet

And I’ve finally got my external email address.

Life is sweet and I’m making the most of it coz you never know when things might unexpectedly go pear shaped (reflecting back on the past 12 months and the rocky road its been.)

Right, off the watch The Bee Movie.

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Worth the effort

Well, the redesigned site has been live for 4 months now and it seems to have been worth all the pain of recreating it (note to self - it takes longer than you think!)

In those four months its had over 70,000 visits and over 335,000 page views: comparable figures for the same period last year were 41,000 visits and 156,000 page views. (Have I mentioned lately how I love Google Analytics for making all this metrics stuff available to webmasters for free.)

In addition, since April the site has generated over US$500 in Ad Sense pocket money - not bad given I pay not a cent to advertise it.

I like this melarky of creating sites and then generating earnings from doing nothing, well maybe not nothing (see above.) If only I had time to create a few more sites…….. hmmmm, I feel another web project coming on

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Ten days and waiting

Things seem on the whole to be working out well in the new job - except that after 10 days (no, I’m not joking), I’m still waiting for an external email address. And yes, I am part of IT.

I find this quite amusing, and pointed out to the help desk yesterday that I didn’t want an address on a new domain or anything. Just give me an address like everyone else has and it will be fine: firstname.secondname@marks-and-spencer.com.

I offered to pop over and create the account myself if it was easier. They asked me to just keep phoning the help desk - but that’s not working, clearly.

So I’ve decided not to bother chasing them for it anymore. It’s obviously not a simple thing (for them) to create. Instead, if I don’t have an account by next week, I’ll just create a new work email account on funnelweb and be done with it

Apart from that, work is going well. The Amazon guys are really nice and I look forward to working with them. I’ve encountered a handful of jobsworths, which is great as it enables me to experience those “The Office” moments in real life. Good, because the second US series has just finished on tv and I was looking for something to fill the gap til the next one.

But at least I’m getting loads of new experience in retail and ecommerce, which was what I wanted. And though I wouldn’t say I’m flat out with work right now (though I should be in coming weeks), its ok enough for me to see myself there for a couple of years or so before I look for something else to get my teeth into.

It was great this week to be asked for suggestions on what stuff M & S could add to their website. It had to be stuff that amazon currently uses. I suggested things like RSS feeds, social tags and instructional videos - not sure if any will be go’ers but it was great to be able to suggest them.

In the background I’ll keep building my web 2.0 knowledge so that when the use of web 2 tools in organisations and on ecomm sites really takes off, I’ll be ready to make a move. According to Gartner, it is entering the trough but in a couple of years should be very popular.

I’ll get even more retail experience at xmas as I think us “HQ” staff are required to work in a store for a few days! Excellent! Fair dinkum, my career will spookily have turned full circle - my very first job at 15 was working on the counter in a barber’s shop and my first fulltime job after uni was sorting books and packing shelves in a bookstore (Book City in George Street, do you remember, Aunty Dawn ?????

Beyond work, I’ve been chatting with the guy who runs www.mapchannels.com as he wanted to use my London for Free maps content to create some demos of his new Feed maps. It’s reminded me that I have an unfinished project in LFF and need to crack on with it - so that’s tomorrow taken care of! Am contemplating setting up a wiki for some of the sections of the site such as the indoor and outdoor events and letting visitors add more to these sections themselves.

Beyond work and web, sdf and the other hairy ones are well though giz is being a bit attention-seeking lately. I think its because I’m no longer around during the day most of the week. Honestly - cats, like children

And I’m contemplating standing for one of the officer posts in our local residents association, not so much so I can fight with the council on issues, but so I can help our community as a whole to provide a hand to the more vulnerable members of it, such as older folks and those living alone, who might need some community support now and then. Trying to make them feel more included and cared for etc.

Its all good - and who knows, this week it might be even better if I can send an external email from work. I’m not holding my breath though

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Laughter and kittens

Well, The Merry Wives of Windsor production in this year’s Globe season is probably the best play I’ve seen there since the all women production of Taming of the Shrew many years ago. Classic, funny from beginning to end and really good fun. Get tickets, go see it - its worth it.

We began the weekend with laughter - after I made my obligatory monthly “or so” phone call to my mother - and finished it with cuteness, in the form of a neighbour’s two 11 week old kittens. So adorable, just slightly too big to sneak home in my pockets.

And on the way back we saw this amazing rainbow, which made me realise what an amazing planet we live on.

The laughter of fine entertainment and the cuteness of kittens - the perfect tonic to get me over my flu.

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A very Merry Saturday

Today we are off on our annual visit to the Globe Theatre.

This time around, its just sdf, jeanyjean and me and we’re seeing The Merry Wives of Windsor. I have no idea what the play is about, but if nothing else, it will be a great opportunity for some reflection on the week that was. And another opportunity to visit Borough market for lunch. And get drenched.

Ironically, I’m grateful that I haven’t been too busy in my first week at M & S as I’ve felt crap. Its been a struggle just to get in and back each day and keep going. By rights I probably should have been home in bed with some dvd’s and loads of lemsips. Oh well - character building, as Hec would say. Not sure sitting in the rain today is a good idea.

Despite that, I have managed to identify some quick wins already at work and to get verbal buy-in for them.

My manager has agreed to me sorting out instant messaging for our eCommerce team and internal stakeholders (I think its around 100 people or so, split over two sites). And I’ve helped various M & S stakeholders to understand the concept of project wikis and how they might help with comms with Amazon and reduce reliance on email. Amazon, as you might expect, already use them with other customers so I just need to work through how we can also get started with using them.

The great news about this is that everyone so far that I’ve spoken to within M & S is up for the changes I’ve suggested, and my manager seems really hands-on and determined to make things happen. This is so important to me because there’s no point coming up with ideas for improvements if I can’t get them through.

M & S as an organisation seems really good. OK, so I’ve had to raise 4 help desk calls so far to sort out my laptop and its locked down so I can’t install firefox - but what’s new? I’m sure there’s a module on some IT Administrator course which is all about how to make people’s jobs more difficult under the guise of “ensuring security”. Its annoying, but I’ve discovered a way around it already if need be. I just need to take my own laptop into work when I want to use firefox or other apps that aren’t on my M & S machine.

The other good thing I’ve noticed is the number of women in senior positions within IT in M & S . e.g. the Development manager, the Support manager, the Testing manager (and my line manager) are all women. So much for IT being dominated by men.

Its really good as I think women are better suited to IT management roles, given our ability to multitask and our better people management and comms skills. All the softer skills stuff, which is really what IT management is about. Men may be better technically, but that’s not what’s needed for those sorts of jobs. OK, I know I’m generalising but trust me - for every man you can point out who can do a good IT management role, I can point to two women.

I expect to start to become busy next week as I pick up a few projects to work on. Let’s just hope I have the energy to get stuck into them.

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Nothing beats the coffee

Second day in the new job and yep, I’m loving it. (Phew!) I only wish I felt less ill - typical, I spend a month off work and feel fine, and then………

Anyway, I’ve had a good look on the corporate Intranet and couldn’t find any rules about blogging, so figure I can just get on with it.

So - here’s my Marks and Spencer Workplace Scorecard.

Scoring 5 - the coffee. I swear, I’ve never tasted such great coffee out of a vending machine ever. And its free. Goodbye to trips to Starbucks, I never need to leave the office again.

Scoring 4 - the canteen. Subsidised M & S food, freshly made by friendly folks and right next to our office area. Perfect. (Except if they keep cooking fresh bacon and sausage sarnies for breakfast, I will need a bigger bike to get to work on.)

Scoring 3 - the office space. Very light and modern, wall to ceiling glass walls all around, new desks and chairs, wonderful views over Paddington, docking stations and loads of free desks to choose from.

Scoring 2 - the commute. Its not the worst I’ve done and at least its only one bus journey directly from home to door, but it takes about an hour 15 each way. Still, tomorrow is Scooter Day which should hopefully half this time.

Scoring 1 - er, lack of Instant Messaging. But I may have figured out a way to fix this and hopefully we can sort this out fairly quickly.

The people in my team are lovely - but then again, I haven’t met a team who hasn’t been, anywhere I’ve worked. My new manager is also nice, as are the customers and IT colleagues I’ve met so far.

I know its early days but its all looking promising, which I am seriously relieved about. Haven;t met with any Amazon guys yet - maybe tomorrow.

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Raring to go

like the fool I am and I’ll always be, I’ve got a dream……….

The new job starts tomorrow and I’ve got a really good feeling about it - but yes, I know I’ve said that before. This time around, I think my role is clearer and I know they have loads of stuff for me to get my teeth into.

I’ll need to check the blogging policy of Marks & Spencer first, but if its ok I hope to write about my experiences of working there on this blog.

I definitely feel ready to start, and have done most of the stuff I set out to do when I left Conchango.

I’ve painted most of the front of the house, done various repairs, fixed my pushbike, set up www.marywadefamily.net using wordpress for some guys in Australia and created the first version of my mobile site for londonforfree, as well as catching up with some lovely old friends.

I’ve also done lots of reading on web 2 and organisations, mainly to brush up on my knowledge for when it comes up in conversations with the stakeholders I might be working with at M & S. I know they are looking into using some of the web 2 tools - hopefully I will be somehow involved in this, we’ll see.

I feel pretty prepared - just need to skim over my Agile books again this evening and have a deeper look at marksandspencer.com.

But this arvo we are going to wander over to Burgess Park and check out Carnaval Del Pueblo - should take my mind off work and web things for a while.

Then tomorrow I’m Paddington - bound. Can’t wait!

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Just because they can doesnt mean they will

Between reading Groundswell I’ve also been reading Here Comes Everybody, which discusses the social impact of web 2.0 technology and the ways that people mobilise around issues that concern them by forming online groups and so on.

And it dawned on me that, unless I’ve missed something, the writers of Groundswell have made a bit of an assumption around customers and their use of web 2 tools.

Their book suggests that if you figure out who your target customers or users are, decide why you want to communicate with them (e.g. to get ideas from them for new products, to promote new services to them, etc), and then understand how these users make use of web 2.0 tools (ie. their “social technographic profiles”) - well then all you need to do is use these tools and magically customers will communicate with you.

Except that they probably won’t.

The piece that seems to be missing is what Clay Shirky talks about in Here Comes Everybody. Its something he calls “Promise”. Another way of thinking of it is the “what’s in it for me” factor.

For example, just because an organisation has identified its target users as being “critics” (in Groundswell’s  social techno profile) - due to the fact that they tend to rate products and comment on blogs - doesn’t mean they will do this on matters of interest to the organisation.

Just because I rate books and holiday places doesn’t mean I will rate toothpaste or coffee.

Forrester charges for access to its detailed information on social technographic profiles but I wonder whether the info considers this dimension - not so much exactly which groups use what web 2.0 tools but also what they talk about when using them.

Maybe I’ll find out by the end of the book.

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