Seeing 10 – 12 rows of people in the queue (I estimated there were well over 500 people in the queue ahead of me) I knew I was in for a long wait. It took well over an hour to get through immigration.

This doesn’t have to be the case though.

Until February this year, I would sail through immigration, even though I am an Australian citizen resident in the UK,  I was able to use the “IRIS” retinal scan system as a registered traveller.

I would submit my eyes to a quick scan (I got used to standing in the exact position for a perfect scan) and in 15 seconds I would be through immigration!

When I tried to renew my registration in February I was told that “IRIS is being phased out” and no new registrations were being taken.

Apparently this was being done in favour of the ePassport scanning stations that are only available for EU or UK passport holders.

In my multiple trips over the last few years through Heathrow, I have never actually seen ANYONE using the 3 dedicated ePassport machines at most checkpoints.

This was the case also on Saturday – no-one using the ePassport stations, and no-one using the IRIS machines (I can’t anymore)

Why the IRIS system was so good was that anyone resident in the UK (and that includes those expats like me that travel internationally a lot) could sign up and it took much of the frequent traveller traffic off the normal immigration desks.

I have no idea why the ePassport system has not taken off for EU and UK nationals, perhaps brits just really do like queuing!

The UK Border Agency CAN solve immigration queues with technology.

While I can concede that the IRIS system may have had its day (with 2 machines at each UK border, invariably over the last 5 years when I have used the system one or both would be out of order for no reason), I see no reason why the ePassport system could not be extended to those expats like me that have an ePassport.

In the US, which arguably has even tighter immigration checks at the border, their global entry program is available to all permanent US residents, and also includeds a background check and interview, as per the IRIS program.

Heathrow, with the closure of IRIS has excluded non UK/EU residents from using technology to clear immigration by restricting the ePassport gates to UK/EU passport holders only.

This would be a quick win for the UK Border Agency – divert the frequent travellers with rights to stay in the UK to the ePassport machines and check the biometrics on their passport and speed them on their way – freeing up the non-EU desks with less traffic.

Will Heathrow cope with the Olympic arrival traffic?

Having lived through an Olympics in Sydney, my observation is that London is just not prepared.

In Sydney for the 2000 Olympics SOCOG (the Sydney equivalent of LOCOG) tested EVERYTHING!

They even staged a mock avalanche of incoming travellers at the Airport – signing up volunteers with luggage to come to Sydney International airport months before the games, load testing with Olympic sized arrivals and seeing what systems and processes could be optimised.

Sydney has only one international terminal, and all arrival gates lead to just one arrivals hall that has only about 20 immigration desks.

Sydney coped with this influx – because they had tested the procedures and optimised.

The main stadium at Olympic Park was not only finished 12 months before the games, they held huge test events there (such as the National Rugby League Grand Final in 1999 that I attended) to see what they could improve.

As a result, Sydney will always be seen by the IOC (unofficially of course) as the “benchmark games” where everything went to plan.

I’ve seem a decided lack of test events and “load testing” by LOCOG and we’re under 100 days from the opening ceremony.

If the chaos at Heathrow did not serve as a real “load test”, then nothing will.

The solution for reducing immigration queues at Heathrow?

I believe that only by getting smart and using technology such as IRIS (extending existing registrations NOW to ease traffic on existing non-EU queues) AND implementing ePassport access for non-EU travellers will Heathrow be able to cope with Olympic sized traveller influxes in July.

Have you used IRIS in the past at Heathrow and like me are angry that they have scrapped the system – have your say in the comments below.

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On the Kred side, where you see “does not” read ” watch this space!”.

Click on the infographic for a full sized view

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I’ve never really understood Instagram.

Firstly – you can’t easily go to a user’s instagram profile from a tweet (unless you have the app) and see all the photos they have uploaded, nor can you browse other photos when you are on an Instagram web or mobile page.

See the screengrab below (taken by thetodayshow at the Logies in Melbourne with One Direction) – click for larger view.

In many ways, apart from the cool filters that are available on the mobile app, it is a pretty unimpressive photo destination point in my eyes for non Instagram users, or those of us looking at photos on our desktop.

Perhaps it is just designed to be just that – a link from a tweet to a single page.

Unless you actually have the app on your phone, with instagram tweets from your friends you are viewing on your phone or on the desktop version:

• You can’t see the other photos taken by the user
• You can’t see the people following the other user
• You can’t even click on the people who have commented on the photos – the usernames in the screenshot above aren’t clickable??

Worth $1Bn? time will tell.

Photoblogging since 2006

I’ve been photo blogging for a while now, starting with Shozu (remember them – what happened to these guys??) sending my mobile photos to Flickr in real time.

Enter Twitter and I initially used Twitpic as everyone else did, but I became tired of the non-existent mobile interface and ads all over the site.

The problem with Twitpic, and Yfrog is as you can see below, they are littered with ads and look horrible on a mobile phone.

In 2009 I swapped to Mobypicture after meeting Mathys van Abbe in Amsterdam. It is similar in functionality to and other photo sharing sites – with a nice mobile interface and thankfully no ads. Also Mobypicture allows you to post to multiple social networking sites simultaneously.

Even Mobypicture does not meet all of my needs, as I want my own URL shortener to be used when I share the picture and not their moby.to one. This is because I like to get the stats of who’s clicking and looking at my pictures, and also helps with branding.

When I moved my site across to 6Sync and a VPS (Virtual Private Server) I decided to “roll my own” photo sharing service – here’s how you can too.

How to roll your own Instagram in 5 steps

1. Set up a new site or a subdomain of your site such as pic.lc.tl

2. Set up a completely new instance of WordPress here

3. Install the WP Postie plugin that allows you to email a picture to a secret email address, and the plugin grabs the picture and posts it straight away

4. Install the YOURLS WordPress to Twitter plugin – this complements an existing YOURLs branded shortener at lc.tl that shortens all of my links (also works with bit.ly)

5. Grab the amazing “Autofocus Lite” WordPress theme that displays the photos brilliantly

That’s it. With this you have your own “Instagram-esque” site.

So how can this save me $1Bn and why is it better than Instagram?

When shooting a mobile picture on my device, I simply email it to my blog, with the text of the tweet in the subject line.

Postie then does all the rest, and YOURLS WordPress to Twitter shortens the link and then tweets it as me!

On Android or Blackberry I can also use the native WordPress app to take a picture within the app and post it directly to my blog.

Getting the Instagram look

How do I achieve the cool Instagram filters?  On my HTC Sensation 4G, filters are included within the camera app.

The benefits of this “roll your own” Instagram are numerous

1. It drives traffic to my photo blog pic.lc.tl, and you can also browse the other photos there taken at different times easily

2. It shortens the links automatically as my branded links and is much shorter than instagr.am/p/Y65eWr457/

3. You can easily comment on the pages using the standard WordPress comment feature

4. It has a cool mobile optimised version using WPTouch (try viewing pic.lc.tl on your mobile to see what I mean)

5. There are no ads!

6. I have full control of the site and the pictures

I am sure that some of you reading this post will argue that I have my own server, know what I am doing etc – but that’s my point.

If I can do it, and I am not a web designer, just an experienced blogger using a mix of open-source tools, then why is something that is technically better and has more features than Instagram cost exactly $0 in incremental funds to set up??

I say $0 in incremental funds as I already have the server and space and the plugins and themes were free.

Creating your own services for bit.ly and Twitter clients

Now I have my own server, I’m moving all of my other 3rd party services across there.

I use YOURLS for my URL shortener – see why at http://lc.tl/url - bye bye bit.ly

I use the amazing DABR Twitter client on my mobile and desktop so have no need for a 3rd party Twitter app, and now I have my own Instagram.

I just wish there was a simple way to export all of my pictures across from Mobypicture to my pic.lc.tl site, as I have around 600 pictures over there from 2009 that I’d like to get on the site

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Jenni Hogan is a fellow South Australian who now works on TV at Seattle’s KIRO7.

I first came across Jenni when reading the iPad version of my old hometown newspaper, the Advertiser where they had written a feature about her.

Within moments I was connected to her via twitter @jennihogan and have stayed in touch since.

Using the power of Twitter, she reached out to me hoping to get in contact with Kred Chief Evangelist, Porter Gale.  Only when I replied and saw her new found Kred addition did she realise that Kred was the “little project” I have been working on.

She has made a name for herself not just for being a great Traffic Anchor on Seattle’s KIRO7 morning news show, she has also harnessed the power of social media.

Jenni says that while her dream job hasn’t been created yet, if it was, she’d be mixing TV with interacting with people on social media in real time: TV meets social.

This Thursday night (10pm ET, 5am GMT Friday, 4pm Friday Sydney, 3:30pm Adelaide time) March 22nd she gets to create that dream job, for a pilot show and then hopefully something more.

UPDATE: You can see a replay of the live show from 22nd March below.

Wherever you are, you can participate in the show by tweeting using the hashtag #KIROConnect or commenting on the program’s Facebook page.

The show will begin online 30 minutes earlier with a livestream conversation, and then move to primetime TV at 10:30pm pacific time, Thursday 22nd March.

The audience will be encouraged to interact online throughout the primetime segment by following hashtag #KIROConnect on Twitter, helping to create what the next generation of combined television and social media will provide.

The show will also highlight:

• Top Apps that can help save time and money
• Ways to use technology to improve your life
• Local celebrities and how they interact with their online communities
• The faces behind the online voices of your favorite brands.

Featured guests:

Josie Bissett, starred on Melrose Place
Ben Huh, CEO of Cheezburger
Blake Cahill, President of Banyan Branch (I worked with Blake at Visible Technologies)
Porter Gale, Lead Advisor of Kred
James Sun CEO of Pirq and former contestant on The Apprentice
Jean-Sun Hannah Ahn, Miss Seattle 2012.

I’ll be watching Jenni, and glad that Porter Gale will be representing us, and look out for a special guest appearance from Kred – just make sure you use the hashtag #KiroConnect and mention @JenniHogan or someone else in your tweet!

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I keep resisting the calls from my family to move back to Australia, and one of my main defences is that where I’m playing (the UK and US) we are well advanced in terms of digital marketing and social media and that I’d be twiddling my thumbs for a couple of years if we moved back.

This is probably a bit harsh, and it keeps my family at bay however my eyebrows were raised when I was reading the Sunday Mail (Sunday version of the Advertiser, Adelaide’s only newspaper) on my iPad and came across a story about “SA’s top 100 twitter users”.

You can see the 2 page article below – click for a larger view

(oh and by the way, what is a “twit”? – don’t they mean tweets…)

This piece helps fuel my belief that some organisations are stuck in 2009 when it comes to social media.

Influencer analysis (something I know something about due to my day job running Kred) has evolved rapidly – namely

2009 – number of followers
2010 – followers and engagement (RTs, @replies)
2011 – number of friends talking about the topic
2012 – who is the most influential and generous in my community in my city?

The Sunday Mail piece awards the “top tweeter” status based on the “number of tweets“??

Also a quick glance at their #1, #2 and #3 places shows that:

1. Jenno Von Mars comes from Mars and has protected her tweets (so how do they know anything about her?)

2. Bekk Diviney comes from “Bat County” and also protects her tweets

3. Ginger Origliasso lists New York City as her location
…all pretty scientific – and they apparently used a couple of free tools to come up with these gems!

If only Michelle Prak @prakky (#20 on the list, Kred score of 828/9 top communities recruitment/sailing/advertising) had consulted them this would never have happened.

Thankfully Steve Davis, Marketing Director at Baker Marketing in Adelaide also called out this article as not only wrong but unhelpful titled:

The Sunday Mail Top 100 Adelaide Twits List: The Danger of a Twitter Fluff Piece

The Sunday Mail article shows where social media is in some parts of the world and what qualifies as “mainstream” journalism. I’m still shaking my head about this.

If this is where Adelaide is at in terms of social media understanding, then I’m staying put.

Update – just found out that the author of this piece is Petra Starke @petstarr ( Kred score 763/7 communities reporters/celebrity news/news) and she actually lives in New York – and writes about Adelaide. She should therefore know better from a New York perspective that no-one talks in terms of “top tweeters” based on the number of tweets from a protected account.

PS – After posting this, I received a cryptic tweet from Petra..

@AndrewGrill @prakky I could tell you that I wrote the article I was asked to write, but instead I’ll just tell you to write a letter to Ed.

So this is the Adelaide media mentality if they commission stories like this **sigh**

PPS – if I “write a letter to the Editor” and respond in the way that old-school newspapers want me to, then no-one would have heard about it.

Instead, I tweeted you, and you responded instantly and already hundreds of people (500 at last count) have clicked on the link I shared on Twitter and are ready my response to the editor. This is the new world (and the new world for brands also).

For a very reasoned view on this whole issue – head over to Michelle Prak’s blog and read what she thinks.

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A recent experience with moving this blog to a new webhost (and the reasons behind the change) has been the motivation for this post.

First – some background

I’ve had a website for a long time.

Back in Adelaide in 1994, the course I was studying (Master’s Degree in Information Technology & Telecommunications) was a brand new course designed to push the boundaries of standard education.

Way back then, we were taking lessons via tele-learning (video equipped classrooms linked by 384MB/s ISDN), and we had our own office space and full access to the internet (Google had not been born yet).

Each University in the program provided a room big enough for 20 people with desks, office chairs, laser printers and PCs.

Also critically, all 20 students were provided with space on the university’s web server.

So, in 1994 I created my first website.

The cache of http://garlic.aitec.edu.au/~grill is now very hard to find, but I remember taking my first tentative steps with raw HTML code 18 years ago.

Yes, I’ve had a website for 18 years!

When I left University and moved to Sydney and worked for Telstra, I revamped it and moved it to Telstra shared hosting, registering www.andrewgrill.com in 1999.

See an archive.org snapshot of the site on 18th October 2000.

In 2001 I moved it to Webcentral.

Ahead my move from Sydney to London, in 2006 I moved the whole site and email to Fasthosts.

The reason for each of these moves was that I was just not satisfied with the webhost I was with. They were either too slow, or had appalling customer service, or uncompetitive pricing.

It was a couple of years before I contemplated another move as I was becoming frustrated with the slow server speeds and poor customer service from Fasthosts.

Tip for them – if you are going to offshore your customer service, use proper PSTN lines rather than VoIP so we can actually hear them!!

I remember sitting in my local Starbucks in June 2010 researching my options.  Confused with the myriad of choices – I simply asked twitter.

Within 15 minutes I had 5 recommendations – 2 of them were for Hostgator.

So for the last 2 years I have been with Hostgator and have been quite happy. I chose one of their standard shared hosting plans, and while this has been fine for the blog until now, I really wanted to take the hosting up a notch without going for a dedicated server.

I just cannot justify the cost of a dedicated server when blogging is a hobby and I receive no revenue from the site.

I decided that a Virtual Private Server (VPS) was a good halfway house between shared hosting and a dedicated server.

Hostgator do offer a VPS option, however the cheaper options require you to manage the sever manually (ie no cPanel option).

As I am not a full server geek, I need the comfort of a cPanel as I have enjoyed with Hostgator.

I researched the internet and came across VPS.net as an alternative.  They had a quite reasonable £13/month option so I signed up (month-by-month so nothing to lose).

I expected the process to be straightforward, so I signed up on a Saturday just before taking Madeleine to a 6th birthday party.

I took the iPad with me to relieve boredom, and expected that I would receive signup details and be able to use what I had paid for almost immediately..

I was wrong.

I entered my credit card details etc – then waited for the next step.  Here in order is what happened.

1. Email validation. No big deal – passed this one

2. Told the account was set up and tried to log in.

3. Could not log in.

4. Emailed their support team (who were very responsive) – and received this reply:

Sorry for the problem. There appears to have been an error when you signed up. I will need to create your account manually for you. Please provide me with the information attached to the screenshot.

You will need to use a different Email address to signup this time.

5. Supplied all the details – and waited.

6. Received this message “I am going to move this to our Level 2 support team for further checking.”

7. then, this..

We have got a lot emails about this error today but we can not fix this error now.
We’ll notify our Developers about your request but they will be on monday.
Could you update this ticket on monday at 08:00 AM?
We are sorry for inconvenience.

You’ve got to be joking – is it 3pm on a Saturday and I have to wait until Monday to use your service?

I had apparently (checking with others on twitter) hit their fraud trigger (signing up on a weekend?) and was told

Your account is invalidation queue and you can only login once they have been validated by the sales / billing team.
Thanks.

At this point I thought I’d been had, and I remembered on the welcome email I received the GM’s email address – so I emailed him direct.

He fixed the problem – yay (but why did it take the GM’s intervention to properly on-board a new client?)

When signing up for my virtual server, I then got the domain wrong (my fault as I mis-typed londoncalling) and blew another £13 – something Russ kindly decided to refund.

So you can imagine I was pretty annoyed to have had to jump through all of these hoops just to have a VPS server configured.

I set the server up and from then onwards all was ok.

And with one tweet – I moved to @6sync

I did share my frustrations on twitter (where else) and caught the eye of Mario at 6Sync who tweeted:

@mdjanic @AndrewGrill why not take a look at us? I’m sure you will be impressed =)

So I did, and I was impressed.  More on their excellent on-boarding service and speed in my next post.

PS I picked the Kilo package with cPanel and backups.

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Madeleine then got thinking.

First of all she would have to change her picture as it shows her as a 2 year old (I’ll choose the picture daddy).

Then she said: “what if I put some videos of me up there?”

Then she started to think more broadly.

“What about if I put some colouring in games up there like they have on Cbeebies and then all of my friends can log in and play my games.”

Then she remarked that she wanted her website to be “even better than Cbeebies”.

I then had to explain about copyright law and the fact that no, we could not have pictures of Ariel up there as they were owned by Disney.

I then quickly searched for open source java games (thankfully there are many).

What I found interesting was that once she realised that she had her own website and license to do whatever she wanted, she totally got the whole concept of publishing, audience and extending her own delight to her friends.

Now all she needs to grasp is copyright law, SEO, monetization and her new career is set!

I remember when I was 5, we didn’t have computers let alone the possibility of ever having my own website.

Children growing up today have so many different experiences to Gen X and Gen Y.

In many ways the increased responsibility of parents is to provide all of the tools and platforms and then let these young creative juices flow.

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This is a very simple procedure using the iPhone app.

If however you have an Android or a Blackberry, you can only look on in frustration if you are a plastic Starbucks card holder knowing that it will take 4-5 scans of your (outdated) magnetic strip technology to pay for your coffee.

Fear no more!  I have found a foolproof way of getting the Starbucks mobile card experience onto your non-iPhone.

4 simple steps (assuming you have an iPad)

1. Grab the Starbucks iPhone app on your iPad from the app store

2. Enter your Starbucks card number into the app so that it allows you to display the card’s barcode (it will look like this)

3. Take a screenshot of the barcode (hold bottom button and power button at same time on the iPad)

4. Email yourself the screenshot, trim to just show the barcode image and show the barcode as a picture using the picture viewer to the scanner in the store – this works!

I’ve had multiple Baristas ask how I got the Starbucks card Blackberry app – now you know!

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I went down to the site this morning on Oxford Street (directly opposite Selfridges) to see it for myself ahead of my interview with @SoniaGallegoAJE today for Al Jazeera English.

In the video below, you can see exactly how it works.

If it detects you are a girl (they claim 90% accuracy), then you see the full ad.

If you are a guy, you only see the website ad and are reminded that some girls don’t have choices (see photos below).

This is a really smart use of technology on a number of fronts.

1. The campaign is all about choices

2. The technology is targeted – towards females

3. It is interactive and helps cut through all of the competing noise on the streets of London

I think it is also a smart move from Clear Channel to have a charity campaign about choices as the first execution – who is going to bad mouth a charity trying to create a better life for women?

Will we see more of this? Most likely, yes we will.  The challenge for advertisers will be not to go down the creepy option and overtly recognise and record faces.  A “Hi Andrew Grill” based on recognising my face would freak even me out – so let’s not go there.

The holy grail for advertisers right now is real-time, relevant, and targeted.  This execution ticks all the boxes.

My only criticism is that the hashtag is a tad to long #choicesforgirls

Well done Clear Channel and Plan UK.

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Have a look at the sign for an Architect’s company I spied this morning in London.

I can’t find a website anywhere for John Coyle Contracts, however this should not preclude him from securing his own brand online.

He has decided to use an email address coylecontracts7@aim.com

Two things here

1. As he is using a shared email domain, he had to settle for “coylecontracts7″ – not very personal

2. As he is using AOL’s aim.com domain, he misses out on any company branding.

A snazzy domain name such as www.johncoyle.co (which is available) would be a great start, instead of using AOL’s brand.

I am sure John Coyle has spent a lot of money on his brand and these signs.  My free advice is that for just a little extra per year (we’re talking £20 max from a company such as domainmonster.com) he could also have a professional domain name that shows off HIS brand, not AOL’s, and could still divert emails to this address to his AIM or Gmail address.

In this digital age, I rank a company based on their online branding as well as their offline branding.

Those that don’t know how to leverage their own brand in 2012 I just don’t use.

Am I being too harsh?

If you “get” digital and social, then your brand should be visible online as well.

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SAN FRANCISCO, CA (Jan 26, 2012) - Kred, a leader in influence measurement, announced today that Porter Gale has been named Lead Advisor of its Kred Stars and Kred Leaders programs. Gale will be Kred’s chief evangelist to marketing executives and influence marketing advocates in the social media community.

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“…so once you have identified these influential bloggers, what do you do with them?”

The question comes up a lot, and I am very happy to provide my advice, however the question seems to come up just a little too often for me at the tail end of 2011 from large, global PR agencies who you would think have already nailed blogger engagement…

At this point in the conversation, I figuratively take off my “PeopleBrowsr” (read: vendor) hat and put on my blogger hat.

Agencies like this, because they rarely get to meet an active, respected and long-term blogger with a senior role in a vendor company providing social media analytics (and this issue alone could fill up another blog post).

I am always more than happy to provide free and impartial blogger advice to my clients and prospective clients as I believe I am in a privileged position, being paid to work in an industry I love, and meeting lots of interesting people along the way.

I often cite a couple of personal blogger engagement examples

1. Vodafone 360 Blogger SIM – where Vodafone provided myself and 4 other bloggers with a global SIM card (£500/month limit) and encouraged us to “blog for a year about Vodafone 360 on us”.

Hats off to the then head of communities Bob Rapp who supported this initiative. Unfortunately at the end of the 12 months, there was no on-going dialogue with these Global Vodafone ambassadors – shame really as I continue to play this unpaid role for Vodafone on a weekly basis.

2. Mark Hopkins Intercontinental – read about how one tweet secured me an upgrade to a suite at this prestigious San Francisco landmark, as well as free internet for my stay – a great example of blogger engagement. The post is now used an internal training resource for the Intercontinental Hotels Group worldwide.

World’s best practice blogger engagement

The best example (and one that will never be repeated) of blogger engagement involves Her Majesty the Queen.

Her super-smart media advisers thought it would be a good idea to invite those journalists AND bloggers who are covering (or are likely to cover) her Diamond Jubilee in 2012 to a reception in November at Buckingham Palace. The big guns were rolled out for this event – the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and the Prince of Wales and Camilla were there as well. They even had a hashtag ready – #diamondjubilee. Not a bad Royal line-up for a bunch of journos and bloggers!

Assuring a Twitter “photo op”, they set aside the East Gallery of Buckingham Palace as a “Tweet Suite” – a smart touch guaranteeing coverage by those invited bloggers and twitter journalist/celebs.

Phillip Schofield shared a picture with his Twitter followers from the Tweet Suite (as did most of the other twitter savvy guests there on the night).

I am not sure who drew up the blogger list (well advised obviously), and there is no guarantee of favourable coverage from bloggers (or Journalists) ever, but when they file their copy on the Golden Jubilee, I am sure they will look back to the event in November 2011 when they met the subject of their post (and William and Catherine).

The smart courtiers decided that in the age of social media, if you can’t beat them – join them and hence ensured that enough bloggers of note would find an invitation to meet HM the Queen irresistible and also feel the need to show off that they had net the Queen with a tweet from the Tweet suite.

What a pity Royal protocol still forbids a one-handed “self portrait instagram with the Queen” from your mobile.

In answer to “so what do you do with the bloggers once you find them?” – here are some quick tips

1. Just as the Queen did – give them something money can’t buy – an exclusive, advance viewing/trial, meet someone from your brand or your brand ambassador ie give them something to blog about!

2. Bring them into your office and meet them! You will not realise how powerful this can be to acknowledge the work of a blogger

3. If nothing else – call them – don’t just tweet, reach out and put a voice to the brand – and make sure you DO read their blog before you call.

4. Follow up and stay in touch – after you’ve met them, ensure you keep in touch.

5. Use influencer identification and measurement tools such as Kred (disclosure: I work as UK CEO of PeopleBrowsr, makers of Kred) to find those “local rock stars” that would love to be in touch with your brand.

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• How to prevent your own “Eurostar moment”

Google have the money and the reach to pull this off, and they have partnered with the citizen’s advice bureau to look at issues in 4 main areas

1. Staying safe online

2. Your data on the web [and how it makes websites more useful]

3. Your data on Google [and how it makes Google services more profitable]

4. Manage your data

The whole campaign can be accessed via

http://www.google.com/goodtoknow

Google has to balance that fine line in promoting to consumers why cookies and IP location, preferences etc are a good thing (for them and advertisers) as well as outlining the issues and explaining how to stay in control.

These ads have appeared in newspapers (consecutive full page ads), outdoor in underground stations and also on digital escalator panels in tube stations – so a pretty broad (and expensive) campaign.

The ads can also be used to educate children about how the web works and how Google sometimes “knows” where you are also how it manages to anticipate your typing mistakes.

Examples of the campaign can be seen below (click on each one for a larger view)

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Specifically I asked “when will I be able to see how long it is until my bus turns up via my mobile?”.

What I was after was a mobile version of those bus countdown screens that are located at some major stops in London.

He teased me at the time by saying “watch this space”.

Little did I know, a few weeks later, the beta version of the TFL countdown site was launched.

I extensively tested the beta service and saw it move into a live service a few weeks ago with some extensive publicity.

The service is nothing short of brilliant, and it is super simple to use.

Each and every bus stop now has a fairly prominent sticker on the bus stop pole (example below) which asks you to send a code to the SMS bus service (87287).

Instantly, the SMS version of the service sends back the next few buses due at that stop.

There is of course a mobile version, and it even allows you the option to show stops near you by geo-locating your phone (with your permission of course).

In testing the service, I can only assume that it does take a live feed from the TFL bus positioning system that feeds the exact GPS position of each bus into a central server.  I say this because the service has been super accurate. If it says the bus is “due” then I can normally see it approaching.  When I have seen a bus stuck in traffic or roadworks, the arrival time updates in real time.

Not only is this a somewhat simple use of technology (exposing a huge live database of bus locations and routes to an SMS or mobile site interface), it has saved me time and frustration on nearly a daily basis.

When racing to get Miss 5, @madeleinegrill off to school via bus (we are a 3 minute walk from the nearest direct bus to school), I can pull up my own bookmarked list of frequently used stations and see if we should race to the stop or take it easy.

I use the service so often I have even set up my own bus arrivals portal with my most frequent stops in a list, with a link to the search page for stops I don’t visit regularly.

You don’t need to do this, as the mobile site’s search engine lets you search via one of the following: street, postcode, route number or bus stop code and even shows you every bus stop on the route – so in just a few clicks you can get the live and real-time bus arrivals information you need.

I use the service so that when packing up in my local Starbucks (right outside a bus stop), I can now look up how far the bus is away and quickly down my coffee, or drink it at a more leisurely pace depending on how far away my bus is.

While there have been many posters around London about the new service, I don’t believe many travellers have yet latched onto the service and how easy it is to use.

I even used the SMS lookup to demonstrate in a workshop to a client about mobile and social how a simple SMS <> database service could be used.

Everyone in the group could immediately see how easy and simple it was to us, although none had heard of it, or knew what the stickers at the bus stops were all about.

If you catch a bus in London on a regular or even infrequent basis, then the Transport for London Bus Countdown service is a must!

You can get to the mobile version by bookmarking http://lc.tl/bc

More Governments around the world should look at launching their own version of this service – perfect if they already have a live feed of their bus fleet’s location.

This service gets my mobile service of the year award for 2011!

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As I have one of the few commercially available NFC handsets in the UK (a Blackberry 9900), I decided to turn on the NFC function and tap my phone on the big blue NFC logo.

When I did this, this is what I received (click on all images for larger view)

Clicking on the link delivered the following

The Canon winter cashback offer directed me to www.canon.co.uk/wintercashback

which is a NON mobile optimised website, as a result of a mobile NFC read on a poster that is outdoors.

NFC fail – so NFC yet so far – a long way to go Clear Channel.

I know that your London Digital 6 sheets are all the rage, and you are promoting “interaction through NFC and social media”, but you need to make the target content viewable on a mobile!

A few weeks ago, one of the panels on this outdoor screen encouraged me to “tweet how you’re feeling as a colour to @cc_play”

I did this – received no response and I am the ONLY follower of the @cc_play account!

If this is interaction through NFC and social media in 2011 then we have a loooong way to go!

I wonder how many advertisers being sold the “London Digital 6 sheets” are being given the NFC/twitter stats on these posters?

Hats off to Clear Channel for trying though!

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I remember my first “sales” call back in 2001 when I had just taken the position of CEO of PropertyLook, an online commercial property marketplace.

Having held technical, marketing and client side business development roles until this point, I had never needed to make a “sales call” to someone I had never met – the cold call.

Needless to say, my 1st cold call was not so bad, so I followed it with another and thousands of calls later, I find myself wanting to help others with their business development activities using social media.

One of the softest ways to introduce yourself to a new prospect is via what I am coining the “eTap”, where you sensitively use LinkedIn and Twitter to provide a very gentle “tap on the shoulder” to say hello.

This should lead to a warmer reception when you do email or call them, as they will know that you exist, and have some expectation of a contact request in the not-too-distant future.

Here is how it works:

1. Make sure you are on LinkedIn and have a premium (paid) account.

2. Ensure your LinkedIn privacy settings are set to “your name and headline” on the ”select what others see when you’ve viewed their profile” option

3. Look up your target on LinkedIn

4. The very action of doing this will be an eTap as they will be able to see you looked at their profile by using the “who viewed my profile” feature that can be accessed via http://lc.tl/vmp when logged in (this requires them to have a premium paid account to access the WVMP feature).

5. If they have a twitter account linked to their profile, click on the follow button to follow them on Twitter directly from this page.

These simple actions will tell your intended target that you HAVE done your homework, and you are interested in their background and what they have to say on Twitter.

I use this technique myself, as I know it works in reverse – I am always interested in doing a spot of “reverse stalking” and seeing who it is that has chosen to look at my LinkedIn profile and do some research on me.

The image on the left (click for larger view) is the “who’s viewed my profile” list and shows who has recently viewed my profile.

As you can see from the larger view, there is a mix of full names, job titles and companies along with “someone” at company X as well as “anonymous Linkedin user”.

Unless you change your privacy settings (see screenshots below – click for full size image) under the link “select what others see when you’ve viewed their profile” to “your name and headline”, then all of that eTappping will be in vain as the person you want to tap on the shoulder with a virtual “hello” will not know it was you.

[top tip] make sure your privacy settings for your who viewed my profile are set to open – I much prefer knowing who has looked at me rather than guess and look at the company name.

Having your full name appear on my who viewed list tells me you are open and honest from the start and want to build a relationship with me rather than just sell me stuff.

The Twitter follow also forms part of the eTap strategy as there are 2 types of twitter users:

1. Those who check their new follower numbers on a regular basis

2. those who are lying (ie we all check our twitter followers from time to time).

I check these new followers to see what content I am tweeting and blogging is resonating.  It is not just some popularity contest. I want new followers because what I am saying is useful, and therefore the more I know about what content drives new followers,  I can ensure my content (tweets, photos, blog posts etc) is welcomed by my followers.

If I am contacted by someone who is already following me on Twitter (or has just started as part of an eTap), then I am generally more receptive because I can see that they have taken some time to see what makes me tick, so I allocate them more time our of the professional courtesy and respect they have shown me in doing their research.

Have you tried eTapping people before you meet? What has been your experience? Please leave a comment below of send me a tweet to @andrewgrill

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Lately, my role with PeopleBrowsr has seen me in San Francisco on a regular basis.

One of the most popular posts on this site is the one about saving costs on data roaming – share this with your friends via http://lc.tl/dr

I have been using a number of MiFi hotspots for the last year or so when I travel with a local data SIM inside to run my phone, iPad and laptop from the one device, I am not being stung by hideous data roaming costs.

To date I have owned both E585 MiFi and E586 mobile hotspots from 3 and also the R201 from Vodafone.

Each has their own benefits, and as each new one is released, the features improve.

As I travel to the US a lot, I was hoping that the new E586 MiFi from Three would live up to the promise of 1900 UMTS (AT&T support this here in the US).

I was sadly disappointed as there is no US 3G support on this device even though all of the reviews (and the manufacturer) said this was true.

Luckily the Vodafone R201 does support 1900 UMTS, however it is a fairly bulky unit.

So imagine my delight when in San Francisco on Sunday and I wandered into the nearby T-Mobile shop.

They had on display their Sonic 4G mobile hotspot which is not much larger than the E585/E586, and packs some impressive specs. Needless to say, I grabbed one.

• DC-PA+: 42Mbps (Downlink) 5.76Mbps (Uplink)
• HSPA+/HSPA/UMTS 2100/1700 AWS/2100/1900/900/850MHz
• Smart Media sharing, Smart Routing, Smart Surfing
• WiFi 802.11b/g/n
• Rechargeable 2200MAh capacity battery
• Micro SD Card Slot: up to 32 GB
• Size: 102.0 x 56.0 x 15.5 mm

Translating this, DC-PA+ = double carrier. This allows you to take advantage of networks such as T-Mobile USA and Telstra Australia that have upgraded their HSPA networks (marketed here as 4G) to permit “up to“ 42MB/s download.

In practice in San Francisco, I experienced a peak download of over 13Mb/s, and regularly saw between 4-6MB downloads in the SOMA area – quite impressive speeds!

I unlocked the device via Swiftlocks (ebay link here) and now can use it on any GSM/UMTS network!

Using my AT&T data SIM on the faster isp.cingular APN I could only manage 2-3MB/s maximum speeds on the same unit. proving that the T-Mobile network really is fast!

The T-Mobile data plans are reasonable for prepay – you can get 3GB for $50 (30 day expiry), or 1GB for $30.  This is compared to the AT&T Data connect pass which only gives you 1GB for $50 (30 day expiry).

Some of the other improvements in the E587 include

• more intuitive web interface (really nice to navigate)
• better APN profile management
• Allows the ability to auto power off (or not) after 10-30 mins when on batteries
• Extra capacity 2200MAh battery
• The back cover slides of easily for SIM change (no broken fingernails)

As the frequencies in the T-Mobile variant support the funny AWS frequencies (2100/1700 UMTS) as well as the EU 2100MHz 3G, AND 900/850MHz 3G frequencies used in Australia, this means that I now truly have ONE MiFi that will work at fast speeds in pretty much any of the countries I visit on a regular basis.

If you travel a lot internationally, this could be the device for you.

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I arrived over the weekend, so had a chance to indulge in some retail therapy on a wet Sunday afternoon.

What struck me is that everywhere I went, people were talking about or promoting Black Friday sales.

Black Friday is the day following Thanksgiving Day in the United States, traditionally the beginning of the Christmas shopping season.

On this day, most major retailers open extremely early, often at 4 a.m., or earlier, and offer promotional sales to kick off the shopping season, similar to Boxing Day sales in the UK and Australia.

From what I hear it is crazy here with people lining up overnight to grab a bargain.

I read an interesting story in the New York Times that explained how some of the online retailers and less well known chains are using mobile-only offers timed for 6 a.m. — precisely when shoppers are expected to be waiting outside or in line at the big stores.

This is a really smart use of mobile, and talks to the one of the allures of mobile that Alan Moore speaks of – it is there at “the point of creative impulse”.

The NYT article also talks about retailers removing point of sale barcodes to prevent shoppers from doing mobile price comparisons.

Indeed there have been reports of shoppers being prevented from even writing down prices in a Tesco store.

Interestingly though, stores such as Tesco are now offering free WiFi in-store (when linked to a Tesco Clubcard) which you would think could make it easier for shoppers to compare prices while in a Tesco store.

Expect consumers to become more and more savvy with their mobiles and being able to perform real time price checks in one store, and then visit another, or even buy it from a competitor on their mobile while in a particular store.

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“we are VC funded so don’t have to worry much about hosting costs…”

Having worked for about 6 startups over the last 10 years (none of them VC funded incidentally), this was probably the most arresting thing I have heard all year.

To be fair, it was not the CEO of the company talking, but what was perhaps more worrying was that the Gen Y chap presenting probably believed this from something that has been said at a more senior level.

It reminded me of back in the late 90s and early 2000 when dotcom valuations were sky-high and Wired, Business 2.0, Fast Company and Red Herring (remember the last 3?) regularly published 200+ page editions filled with the promise of blue sky investments.

Having worked in the start-up space for so long, I know first-hand what can happen when you don’t have your costs controlled, or have inexperienced management who are making mistakes for the first time with a large amount of funding in the bank.

I was involved in an Australian start-up a few years ago (personally invested my own money also), and saw a company with a bright future, some smart technology with a $MM investment struggle, the result being the company was wound up and the IP sold for a song.

So when I hear “we’re VC funded so we don’t have to worry about costs”, I immediately sense a company that is not in control of their own destiny and reliant on other people for success (or the hope of it).

My strong advice as a multi-startup veteran is if you are Gen Y and are in a start-up, treat the money invested by the VCs or Angels to get you started as if it was your own money invested and spend it wisely.

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For those of us for which this is our first taste of an Olympics in our home town or country, some of the antics such as Visa’s exclusive position as the only way to buy Olympic tickets and merchandise seem anti-competitive.

The Telegraph story talks about how the local organising committee (LOCOG) has struck a deal with BT and mobile operator O2 to be the exclusive provider of mobile services in the Olympic hospitality areas at the 2012 games.

Having been involved with the Sydney 2000 games while working for Telstra, I have seen first-hand how an Olympics machine works.

The Visa arrangement existed 11 years ago in Sydney, and you could only buy a ticket to the games with a Visa card.  Virtual Visa cards did not exist back then, and so I had to rely on a friend to buy the tickets with her Visa card and pay her back to secure my opening and closing ceremony tickets ($1,200 each back then).

Just as one mobile operator (in this case O2) seems to have an unfair advantage, in Sydney at the 2000 games, official provider Telstra was also in the box seat.

Telstra built their millennium network (archived website here) to carry all voice, data, TV signals from the games to the world.

They also installed a massive GSM network in the Olympic stadium and surrounds at the Homebush site.

Literally every light pole along Olympic Boulevard contained a GSM micro-cell to help with phone coverage and capacity around the site.

At the peak events such as the opening and closing ceremonies (both of which I attended), there were 110,000 spectators in the stadium.  Telstra’s planning had to accommodate the fact that at any one time, half of these spectators would be making or receiving a call.

With the help of more microcells inside the stadium, as well as picocells in the stadium roof with directional antennas pointing to the seats below, it was estimated that the stadium GSM network alone was the same size as Adelaide’s GSM network (a city of some 1M people at that stage).

Other networks (at the time Vodafone and Optus) were not afforded the same planning privileges, so had to serve their GSM customers using existing local cells.

In fact I had my parents call me several times during the opening ceremony on my (Telstra) mobile and there were absolutely no congestion of interference issues – and that was with just a 2G 900/1800 GSM network.

It is probably fair that if O2 has agreed to sponsor (ie fund) part of the games, then they should be able to place additional equipment in the hospitality areas.

To correct some of the comments on the Telegraph article, O2 are not jamming or blocking competitor signals, instead they will have the best and least congested signals around particular areas of the games.

In 2012, we should expect massive mobile internet traffic at the games sites (something we did not have to plan for in 2000 – GPRS was 2 years away) and this is likely to be the largest problem LOCOG faces.

At the 2012 London games many visitors will want to browse the Games mobile portals for information, tweet, as well as update their Facebook profiles and send pictures, all from their mobile.

What is amazing is that back in 2000 all we had to do was send voice and SMS traffic!

See my Sydney 2000 Olympic games photos on Flickr.

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Much of the first morning was spent talking about “millennials” and how to market to them.  The conference venue was the Crowne Plaza right on Times Square, and perhaps a coincidence, one block away was a Time Magazine billboard (click for larger view).

The caption says “overeducated, underemployed, wildly optimistic”

Seeing it reminded me of a May 1999 full page advertisement in the Australian Financial Review (think WSJ/Financial Times) promoting their sister magazine the “Business Review Weekly” (BRW). Click for larger view.

This ad was run in a similar vein.  The main copy reads

“Positions Vacant:
Team leader for exciting
new e-Business. Successful
applicant should be disloyal,
break rules, reset authority,
and flout dress codes. CBD,
$150K+ options”

The ad appeared at the height of the dotcom boom in 1999 and was designed to promote the BRW as a place to read all about the new economy.  Back then I was earning $A150K and I was working in the dotcom area of Telstra called Telstra.com – exciting times!

In 2001 I went on to become CEO of PropertyLook, an online commercial property portal, right after the dotcom crash.

The copy below the orange text reads

The new e-conomy isn’t just redefining the future of business.
It’s completely upending the qualities expected of the middle and senior executives who drive it.
Shareholders who’ve tasted the multiples that pour from online now demand more than old style wealth maintenance – instead wealth creation.

The kind provided by the shock troops of the hot desk world. The best of whom are a lore unto themselves.
Yet, tangible businesses still needs loyal staff, and losing them can be costly.

Does grey hair still matter? Or is it just grey matter?
Stewardship or entrepreneurship? Project or permanence?

How do you follow business changes that are happening by the job lot?
With the business magazine that employs the widest field of vision.

So while the Time ad at the top is much cleaner and exists in 2011, it is interesting to see how little really has changed since 1999.

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He was speaking on a panel at a CMO lunch organised by @JeffreyHayzlett and we chatted afterwards.

On the panel, Jeff mentioned that he was a Ham radio operator. For those Generation Y/ Millennials out there, Ham radio (also known as Amateur radio), describes the use of “designated radio frequency spectrum for purposes of private recreation, non-commercial exchange of messages, wireless experimentation, self-training, and emergency communication.”

Ham radio operators are well known for providing assistance in natural disasters when all other communications have failed.

Jeff mentioned his message to @usairforce during the Haiti earthquake when Doctors Without Borders tweeted they could not land their plane.

@AnnCurry famously tweeted

@usairforce find a way to let Doctors without Borders planes land in Haiti: http://bit.ly/8hYZOK THE most effective at this

which went on to be voted the most powerful tweet of 2010.

Jeff mentioned he retweeted this and was then followed by @USAirforce.

When Jeff mentioned he is a Ham radio operator, I thought back to 1995 when I was at School in Adelaide, and was part of an after-school ham radio club.

The power of global communications became clear when I contacted a US expat in Japan using the 15 metre (21MHz)  band.  I found him by transmitting “CQ DX this is VK5ASP” which translates to “is anyone out there that would like to talk to me, I am in South Australia”.  The Vk5 part of the callsign identifies this.

Later on, I sat for my own amateur radio licence and was granted the callsign VK5ZEZ (I no longer a a licenced amateur radio operator).

After the session at the Pivot conference, Jeff and I remarked that ham/amateur radio is probably one of the first examples of “social” media – when dissected we can see the parallels – namely:

1. it is a broadcast mechanism – anyone “tuned in” to a specific frequency can hear you

2. It identifies each person uniquely by a callsign (and tells you where they are in the world by the callsign)

3. Contains people that are generous and want to help you (this has always been true of ham operators)

4. It is two way in that one person speaks (transmits) and others listen, then it is your turn to join the conversation

Jeff and I talked about CB radio vs Ham radio and agreed that CB radio was a bit like spam (anyone could buy a transmitter and start talking), however with ham radio, you must be licenced and take a test.  This means that other ham radio operators know that you have a certain level of proficiency and know the “rules” of the community.

So in many ways, not only is Ham radio probably one of the first examples of social media, it also accurately describes a global community.

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or this

In each case you haven’t had your account “hacked”, but I bet you have recently tried that latest free tool to show you how many people followed you recently etc and provided it with access to your twitter account.

Perhaps you may have clicked on a tweet from someone that said:

“x number of people have unfollowed me, check yours out here” or

“xx people have looked at my Twitter page see who browsed yours” ?

Only Twitter knows actual page views so tools that send these messages are suspect at best.

To stop you looking silly, here is what you do in 3 easy steps to revoke Twitter authorisation to applications to tweet on your behalf.

Step 1

On Twitter.com, click the dropdown under your name on the RHS of the page and select “Settings” (click for larger view)

Step 2

On the next menu select “Applications”  in the left hand pane at the bottom (click for larger view)

Step 3

Click the “Revoke Access” button for each and EVERY application that is not essential (and definitely the ones you do not recognise).

The latest ones there are most probably the ones sending DMs on your behalf.

Step 4

Use a paid for and responsible tool such as @PeopleBrowsr (free 14 day trial) to manage your twitter presence.

Remember if the product is free, then the product is me (and thus your online reputation ).

Don’t look silly, de-authorise spammy apps NOW!

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McGraw-Hill Professional’s most recent publication, “The Zappos Experience”, written by best-selling author Joseph Michelli, bridges the gap between the printed and digital world using QR codes embedded in over 15 individual chapters.

Link.Me is the start-up behind this unique publishing solution, bringing the print edition of the “The Zappos Experience” to life.  Scan a code with your smartphone and directly access supporting multimedia content such a Facebook page devoted entirely to “Delivering Happiness” or video clips sharing peek into the Zappos conference room and an epic Nerf battle at Zappos headquarters.

“This is one of the first times that a publisher is embedding QR Codes throughout a book, not just on the jacket,” says Antony McGregor Dey, CEO at Link.Me.

“This interactive experience really enhances the reader’s level of engagement and creates a modern twist on a favorite pastime.”

It’s modern twist with foresight into future trends as publishers are looking for new ways to adapt to a digital world. With publishing companies facing an uncertain frontier combating the threat of e-readers, tablets and new multimedia channels, Link.Me offers a creative and cost effective alternative for publishers print titles, while retaining the digital experience that readers are beginning to expect.

Unique user experience aside, the Link.Me platform is also giving McGraw-Hill new insights into readers habits. “Link.Me is all about connecting brands to their retail customers,” says McGregor Dey. “We use our mobile Tags coupled with compelling mobile content to encourage readers to register directly with the brand.

Using the Link.Me platform, McGraw-Hill has direct access to their readers for the first time, enabling a relationship built through interactive content.”

Link.Me’s expertise aligned seamlessly with McGraw Hill’s vision creating a mutually beneficial relationship.

Joseph Michelli, Ph.D., is also known for The New York Times bestseller “The Starbucks Experience.” In “The Zappos Experience”, Michelli distils the five primary leadership principles and core values that enhance the customer experience, increase employee engagement, and drive innovation. The book is available at all national retailers October 2011.

Link.Me is a tech start-up with an extensive background in mobile and CRM that specializes in connecting publishers directly to their reading audience through cutting edge mobile technologies. The Link.Me platform not only delivers compelling content but also builds a long term relationship between brands and their retail customers. Link.Me is quickly building a new media and marketing channel for retail brands.

To learn more about Link.Me:
Website: http://link.me
Email: info@link.me
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• New York Times article on the use of QR codes in retail and on TV
• I remain a QR code skeptic – here is why

The resulting article “Scan-to-Buy Gets a Trial on Television” appears at lc.tl/nytqr

As a well known QR sceptic, I thought it worthwhile publishing the questions Stephanie put to me as well as my full answers, some of which made it to the article.

NYT: advertisers and media companies seem wild about QR codes; what’s your sense of how promising they are, and how well consumers understand them?

Andrew Grill: I think there continues to be a lot of hype around QR codes, and I am seeing many billboards, newspaper ads and magazines carrying QR codes in US and UK markets with little or no explanation of what these “squiggly squares” are and why consumers should use them.
My personal view is that with any new technology is introduced, if there are barriers placed in the way of activating the technology and consuming or redeeming content, then consumer adoption will drop of rapidly.

At the moment, QR codes are not the easiest to use. In a test today, I tried to scan three separate QR codes printed the London evening standard, a commuter newspaper. In each case, the codes failed to scan on a latest model Blackberry.

I persevered for several minutes to try and get them to scan. Other consumers may not have been prepared to try so hard and perhaps would not try again. In this case (and with QR codes I scanned in national US newspapers last week) the codes seem to have been printed too small to be easily scanned by a mobile phone. Perhaps the ad agency sold in the idea to the client, however no-one actually tested they would work properly?

My measure of new technology/platform success is how often I overhear them being discussed in my local Starbucks. In 2007 it was all about WiFi, in 2009 it was Facebook and in 2010 Twitter. To date, I have not overheard a QR code discussion, and while not a scientific study, shows that consumers don’t see the technology as useful just yet.

NYT: what do the companies using QR codes need to do to increase response/use of them by consumers?

Andrew Grill: I think that consumer adoption of QR codes will really take off when phone manufacturers embed QR readers into existing smartphone cameras, so that scanning a QR code is a simple one –click process when the camera is on, just as sending an SMS is simple and integrated into all phones. At present, few handsets have a QR code reader pre-installed, meaning a consumer needs to source and download a reader for themselves.

I believe the issue with QR codes today is twofold:

Firstly, I am not convinced that the average user knows what to do when presented with the “squiggly square” on an ad. Few, if any QR codes come with a simple “how to” guide. There are multiple steps between seeing and recognising a QR code, finding a suitable reader on an app store or website, installing it then redeeming a code. Advertisers seem to assume all consumers will know how to read QR codes, and therefore no explanation is required.
Secondly, assuming that a consumer can readily scan a QR code, often the target website linked to the code is not mobile optimised, so the overall experience is not ideal. If a user scans a QR code on a mobile phone, the target website needs to be mobile-optimised as a minimum, and for best practice, be an integrated mobile experience.

In one famous QR code campaign for a well-known Italian handbag manufacturer featured as a full page ad in a major UK newspaper in 2009, a QR code with no explanation appeared along with a beautiful picture of the product. When scanned, the website it presented was a non-mobile optimised version in Italian – completely missing the value of a QR code call to action.

Another example of a QR code campaign that had not been properly thought out was a well-known supermarket in the UK that showed a QR code during the last two seconds of a 30 second TV ad. Even when paused on YouTube, the QR code will not scan.

Just as SMS “just works” and is pre-installed into pretty much every phone on the planet, for QR codes to be successful, handset manufacturers need to build a QR reader into the camera application, so a simple menu item “scan barcode” allows any consumer to use the camera application to scan a barcode without having to download and install a thing.

Until this happens, QR code marketers must continue to actively educate consumers about what a QR code is, and how to source, download, install and scan a barcode. A simple Google search for QR code readers brings up so many options, and my fear is that it is simply too complicated for consumers to bother with.

QR code marketers also need to respect the fact that QR codes are most likely being read on a mobile phone, while mobile so the target websites need to be not only mobile optimised, but present and deliver mobile friendly content.

NYT: HSN, the home-shopping network here in the States, will be using QR codes on-screen that people can scan to go directly to the product page for the item being sold at the moment. HSN hosts will be explaining what QR codes are and how to use them during the broadcasts. What’s your take on this? Is it a smart way to use QR codes or do you think it will confuse consumers?

Andrew Grill: Education of consumers around QR codes is critical for success, and any company that invests in this will help with the overall adoption of new technologies such as QR codes.

The HSN are to be applauded for investing time and effort into educating viewers on the what/how/why of QR codes, but I fear that we are perhaps looking for a solution to a problem that may not exist.

A simple short URL like http://lc.tl/qr as used effectively on channels such as Twitter may be more effective as a mobile call to action for an in-broadcast advertisement. I can imagine that HSN will have to spend a considerable amount of time to educate viewers on how to find and download a QR code reader for their phone, then get lots of frenzied calls from viewers aiming their phone at the HSN screen from their armchair and not being able to scan the code. It may have been easier to simply publish a mobile friendly short-URL to achieve the same aim.

Until technologies such as QR code readers are completely integrated into a mobile phone’s hardware, then my view is that adoption will be slow, and alternative technologies such as near field communication (NFC) which will double as smart-cash and transport smartcards may overtake them because they have a far greater utility than just a lazy way of typing a URL into a mobile browser.

Footnote: the QR supporters who know me well have all been in touch today after seeing the NYT article.  I have promised to become the word’s biggest QR advocate when phone manufacturers embed QR scanning software in the phone’s firmware so you can take a picture, or scan a barcode – nothing to download!

Related posts

• Mobile to the rescue for Black Friday online sales
• The future of newspapers could be the iPad
• Link.Me signs deal with McGraw-Hill through Zappos – a QR code success story!
• I remain a QR code skeptic – here is why
• Carnival of the mobilists 121 is hosted this week at 3-Lib

Even though the Bold 9900 was delayed by months, it looks like they still have some gremlins to iron out.  The Vodafone team even suggested I get a different phone because they had no idea of how long the fix would take.  Now back to the initial story…

Those avid readers of London Calling will know that I’m pretty mobile savvy.  I’m often called on to present, consult or train people on mobile across Europe – so some say I know what I’m talking about.

I have owned a mobile since 1994 (Nokia N1000 AMPS model if you’re curious) and since then have owned 15 Nokias, one Motorola and two Blackberries.

I changed to Blackberry only this year after my mail client provider Goodlink decided to no longer support hosted exchange – meaning smart email on a Nokia was no more.

So I but the bullet, and swapped to a Blackberry (Bold 9780) and had very few issues – nice phone but just a wee bit small.

Imagine how excited I was when I heard that the new Bold 9900 was coming out – fast phone, touch screen, larger keyboard – a road warrior’s delight!

I decided to upgrade my Vodafone account and take delivery of a new Bold 9900.

The Bold arrived last Monday (15th September) as promised. By the following Saturday, it had succumbed to the dreaded JVM 517 error – basically the Blackberry equivalent of the blue screen of death.  It never recovers from this and you can’t plug in the desktop manager and bring it back to life.

So I called Vodafone they were great and arranged a replacement which arrived on Tuesday (23rd August).

Finally finished setting the thing up again, and was mid-tweet at the #CIPR function last night in London and – JVM Error 517 on the SECOND replacement phone!

I called Vodafone when I got home (phone cannot be used in this state) and was told the correct team was away until 8am tomorrow.  I called this morning at 8am, and told that the replacement team is not there until 9am.  Just enough time to post this account of my experience with 2 brand new Bold 9900 phones.

Blackberry UK if you are listening – please get in touch.  I love the phone but I can take only so many JVM Error 517 messages.  Happy to take an unbranded Bold 9900 (is it the VF UK software causing the issue – I am using the same programs I used on the BB 9780?) and test for you, but can you give me a Band 1,2,5,6, so it will work on AT&T when I am there next month. UK BB Bold 9900s are shipped with 1,2,4 UMTS bands which only work on T-Mobile USA.

I will update you as to how this saga unfolds – annoying but hopefully Blackberry and Vodafone can provide a solution.

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• Would a TV show about advertising work in the UK?
• Will the 3G mobile broadband “dongle” kill the WiFi hotspot market?
• What could destroy Twitter? Great customer service
• Vodafone New Zealand launches innovative local zone home phone service
• Vodafone mobile internet campaign at Paddington station

I write this post with some degree of personal insight as to how an Olympic games can affect a city, as I was living and working in Sydney during the 2000 games.

Back in 2000, while I was working for Telstra (the BT of Australia) who were also a major Olympic sponsor, I managed to see first hand how companies were preparing for the games.

I was also a regular presenter to small businesses on behalf of Telstra on “how to ensure you and your business is ready for the games.”

I managed to find the slides I presented back in February 2000 to a group from the New South Wales Chamber of Commerce on how to prepare for the games – presented again below.

Much of the advice I provided back then is relevant 11 years later.  Back then we could only dream about ubiquitous ADSL, so “teleworking” as we all called it was not very practical over dial-up lines.

Fast forward to 2011, and 3G networks and high speed broadband in most areas of London and the UK ensure that this is a real option.

While working at Telstra, I was fortunate to be able to visit the Bellsouth Olympic team in Atlanta that had been involved in the 1996 games.

The one piece of advice that has stuck since that meeting was

“…you watch, as has happened in Atlanta before and will happen in Sydney and future games, the local government scares the public into thinking that the traffic around the Olympics will be a nightmare.

This has the correct effect, as the smart locals and businesses prepare well and stay out of the city, meaning the traffic flows well”.

My experience of working an living in Sydney for the 2000 games was just that.  The local authorities had warned how busy Sydney would be, and how special “Olympic lanes” would cut the available traffic lanes, and increase congestion.

The effect was amazing, and Sydney was really easy to get around during the games because most people scheduled leave, left town, or worked from home and this massively reduced congestion in the city.

The effect of the 2012 London Olympics has been described as like 14 Royal Weddings, combined with 14 heads of government meetings all at the same time.

Coupled with the main public transport route being the already crowded Jubilee line and you get the picture.

So what can you do to prepare?

LOCOG, the London 2012 organisers have some very handy tips on their website to help businesses plan ahead.

UPDATE: Deloitte also have a very handy Games Readiness report on their deloittelondon2012.co.uk website.

One other way to avoid the crowds while working is do what I did and take 2 weeks of and become a volunteer.

Just a few weeks before the games, I realised that I wasn’t going to be allocated a role via Telstra, so I approached Volunteering NSW (when I served as a board member) to see if there were any volunteer spots let so close to the games.

To my surprise, they could offer me roles at either Gymnastics, Weightlifting or Beach Volleyball.

No prizes for guessing I chose Beach Volleyball – on a real beach (Bondi). Not only was it a great feeling wearing the uniform and helping the games to become what those inside the Olympic movement call the “high watermark games”, but the Volunteer parade through the streets of Sydney (54,000 volunteers and probably half a million cheering us on) I will never forget.

I will be lucky enough to have seen two Olympic games in two cities in my lifetime, so if you are in London, I encourage you to prepare well get involved and enjoy London 2012.

PS if you saw the BBC “Twenty Twelve” Olympics spoof show, then you will love the original created by John Clarke, Brian Dawe and Gina Riley (Kim from Kath & Kim) called simply “The Games”.

So real were the stories, SOCOG (Sydney Organising Committee for the Olympic Games) thought they may have a mole inside.

My all-time favourite is “the 94 metre track” sketch – shown below, which is based on the (alleged) story that the original plans for the Olympic stadium in Sydney did not include enough of a run off area at the end of the 100 metre track.

More of my 2000 Olympic Games pictures can be found over on Flickr.

Related posts

• London 2012 ticket process vs Sydney 2000 games
• London 2012 Olympics O2 sponsor deal is no different from previous games
• Solving the Heathrow crisis with technology
• Visions for the Future–Telstra webcast August 8 2000
• Mobile advertising’s success lies on the second screen not the main screen

I noticed that my newest follower was the famous Landmark Hotel in London (@Landmark_London).

Intrigued as to why they were following me, I looked at their stream to see that they are now offering a room upgrade when you check in via Foursquare.

Starwood Hotels Group were one of the first hotel chains to really adopt Foursquare as a loyalty device, and I have earned extra Starwood preferred points simply by checking into the Westin Market Street (physically as well as via Foursquare) on a previous visit to San Francisco.

As I have blogged previously in my post why hospitality and social media are such a good fit, hotels are a perfect fit for social loyalty programs, especially so as the notion of “checking in” fits perfectly with a hotel.

Good to see the Landmark getting social!

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• Why hospitality and social media are such a good fit
• Textbook example of blogger engagement – courtesy of HM the Queen
• Mobile internet growth strong in the UK says Vodafone
• Gravity > best twitter and foursquare mobile client for S60 3rd edition from mobileways.de
• Foursquare fatigue and what it means for Facebook deals

Sponsored by Google and organised by @dr_black it was a great afternoon, raising over £10,000 for the Museum, and even Jeremy Paxman from the BBC turned up!

We also were fortunate enough to have a tour of the museum.

Read the tweets from the event at http://research.ly/#bparty

Click each thumbnail for a larger view.

The original sized pictures can be found on my Flickr page.

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