15
May

Die Rundshow hatte Premiere … Revolution oder Rohrkrepierer? 

As this is mostly relevant to my german readers I decided again for a german language entry this time!

Richard Gutjahr und sein Team haben sich mit der Rundshow ein großes Projekt vorgenommen: Man möchte nicht mehr und nicht weniger, als das Fernsehen zu revolutionieren. Während klassische Medien und Social Media heutzutage eher parallel nebeneinander her laufen soll die Rundshow beide Welten vereinen. Das diese Idee dann gerade bei einem eher konservativen Sender wie dem Bayerischen Rundfunkt angegangen wird überrascht dann doch ein wenig. Aber sicher hat Richard an den richtigen Stellen lange genug gebohrt ;-)

Seit Wochen wird das Thema nun auch schon in den diversen Sozialen Medien wie Twitter, Facebook und wahrscheinlich auch Google + (da bin ich nicht aktiv) rauf und runter diskutiert. Klar, man will/muss ja auch möglichst schnell eine entsprechend große Zuseher- und Teilnehmergemeinde erreichen … denn das Projekt ist erst mal auf 4 Wochen begrenzt.

Damit hat man sich aber auch selber eine ziemlich hohe Messlatte gesetzt. Welpenschutz fast ausgeschlossen. Aber dessen war man sich sicher von Anfang an bewußt.

Also mit iPhone (für die interaktive Rundshow App), iPad für den Rundshow Twitterfeed und … ach ja … dem klassischen Fernseher bewaffnet pünktlich um 23 Uhr bereit gesessen. Vorher noch kurz dem Vorspann im Stream gefolgt und dann gings los …

… mit den Problemen! Also nicht technischen Problemen der Sendung. Da hat eigentlich alles geklappt. Nein, eher mit den eigenen Unzulänglichkeiten.

Nun bin ich halt keine 22 mehr (eher das doppelte) und auch kein mulitaskingfähiger WoW-Spieler - aber aufgrund privatem Interesse und beruflicher IT-Tätigkeit doch den Umgang mit der modernen Technik gewohnt. Aber trotz allem stellte sich schnell das Gefühl der Überforderung ein. Frei nach dem Motto “Da waren sie wieder meine drei Probleme” hieß es dem interessanten Inhalt folgen, Tweets lesen bzw. schreiben und über die App applaudieren bzw. abstimmen. Sicherlich wird sich das Ganze noch einspielen … aber im Moment hatte man während und auch nach der Sendung ein gewisses “Overkill”-Gefühl.

Leider ist deswegen auch der Inhalt ein wenig zu sehr hinten runtergefallen. Gefühlt war das Hauptthema aber ein bisschen zu langgezogen. Vielleicht macht es mehr Sinn zwei (recht Unterschiedliche) Hauptthemen zu behandeln und diese dafür etwas knackiger zu verarbeiten. Wobei man sich in dreißig Minuten mit beiden Varianten wohl immer schwer tut (zu lang oder zu oberflächlich sind da die u.U. wenig begeisternden Alternativen).

Aber wie war das jetzt überhaupt mit der Interaktion? Nun, der Twitterstream ist heißgelaufen und der Hashtag #Rundshow war in Deutschland das Top Trendingtopic. Aber Twittern und Fernsehen ist erst mal nichts so dramatisch Neues. Es ging ja um die wirkliche Interaktion mit den Zuschauern.

Leider ist die erst mal deutlich zu kurz gekommen. Und ich rede hier nicht vom reinen Einblenden der Tweets (was auch eher sporadisch geschehen ist). Nein, mir geht es dabei um die wirkliche Interaktion … also das Eingehen auf Tweets und das sich Einlassen auf die unvorhergesehenen Wendungen die so eine Sendung dann nehmen kann. In der jetzigen Form wird ein feststehendes Script abgespult und der Zuschauer kann seine Meinung auf verschieden Arten kundtun. Das ist nett - aber eben auch keine wirkliche Interaktion.

Trotz allem, ein Rohrkrepierer war die Sendung sicher nicht (und ein bisschen Welpenschutz hat jeder verdient) … aber auch die Revolution ist bisher ausgeblieben.

Man hat sich ehrenvoll durch die Premiere gekämpft steht jetzt aber vor einem Haufen Arbeit damit am Ende die Merheit der Meinung ist “das war Spitze” und “we want more”. Schafft man das nicht wird die Rundshow als ambitioniertes Experiment in die Geschichte des Bayerischen Fernsehens eingehen.

Ich bin jedenfalls schon auf die nächsten Folgen gespannt!

17
Feb

Perfektion … Anspruch und Wirklichkeit in unserer Gesellschaft 

As this is mostly relevant to my german readers I decided for a german language entry this time!

“Das Amt ist beschädigt worden, weil der Amtsinhaber den Ansprüchen an Integrität und Ehrlichkeit an dieses Amt nicht nicht gerecht werden konnte” (frei zitiert aus dem Tenor der Berichterstattung) … ist das so?

Mal etwas zum Nachdenken: Solange wir an unsere Volksvertreter und Staatsoberhäupter höhere Maßstäbe setzen als an uns selber, solange betteln wir darum betrogen und enttäuscht zu werden. Und das wird schon gar nicht dadurch besser, dass wir uns von den Medien diese Tugendmaßstäbe setzen lassen. Gab es da nicht vor über 2.000 Jahren einen Spruch der auf “… der werfe den ersten Stein” endete? Einige dieser “virtuellen” Steinewerfer sollten vielleicht mal überlegen ob ihnen der Anfang dieses Satzes auch noch bekannt ist.

Sicherlich hat keiner einen Freibrief verdient und mögliche Rechtsverstöße müssen verfolgt werden … aber vielleicht sollten wir einen Menschen egal in welchem Amt vor allem einfach erst mal als Menschen sehen. Mit allen Fehlern und Schwächen aber auch allen seinen Stärken. Denn nur wenn wir deren und unsere Schwächen akzeptieren können wir auch deren und unsere Stärken würdigen.

War der Rücktritt also nötig? Das ist dabei am Ende wohl das grösste Dilemma. Nachdem soviel ausgegraben, umgegraben, gedeutet und interpretiert wurde ist es uns inzwischen unmöglich unbeeinflusst zu entscheiden wie relevant die einzelnen “sogenannten Verfehlungen” nun wirklich waren. Das ist auch das, was mir am meisten Angst macht … die Macht der Medien - die in der Lage sind diese “Theater” wann immer sie es möchten zu wiederholen.

Wir haben heute nicht nur ein Staatsoberhaupt verloren, sondern vor allem auch ein Stück Einfluss auf die Gestaltung unserer eigenen Kultur. Denn was immer wir am Ende von unseren Volksvertretern halten - im Gegensatz zu den Medien haben wir diese demokratisch gewählt um uns zu vertreten!

Das Amt wurde ohne Frage beschädigt … die Frage bleibt aber wer es denn nun tatsächlich am meisten beschädigt hat!

15
Feb

Today I left Google+ 

Deleting an account on a social network shouldn’t be something big … but for me it is. I really can’t remember leaving one of the major social networks the last time. I think it was “MySpace” and that was long ago.

I never was a fan of this Facebook - Google+ rivalry anyway. I even think it should be more a comparison between G+ to Twitter according to the way G+ is built.

But I tried. I wanted to see if there is (more) value in Google+ than in other social networks … but for me (and that’s my personal opinon, so your milage may vary) Google+ has failed. Most of the people I want to connect to are on Facebook and/or Twitter already. Not many of them left either one in favor of Google+. Not many of them post very different content in G+ than in other places. Therefore there was a huge redundancy.

But for the most part it’s the way G+ is built. I never felt at home there. I never felt the urge to engage much there. I never really saw much value in being there. And I never liked their mobile apps for the iOS. 

So finally I decided to cut the ropes with G+ and removed my G+ account (that option is as hidden as on FB btw.). I was happy with Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare before as well as during my time with G+. I don’t feel that I might miss much just by sticking with those three.

There’s still Xing left (which most probably only europeans may know anyway) and I am close to cut ropes there too. Xing was the first social network I signed up but I am there very seldom anymore recently. And I am annoyed by all those headhunters that obviously never learnt how to read profiles correctly.

Even so I am interested in new stuff … if you want to invite me to another social network it better should be something very special. If it isn’t don’t be surprised if I decline ;-) 

28
Jan

The Coca-Cola Polar Bears go Social at the Superbowl

I love the Coke Polar Bears anyway but this can be a lot of fun … the Polar Bears will show live reactions during gametime on Feb 5th according to how the Superbowl is running. For those not to familiar with the opponents: the one with the red scarf is a Giants fan, the one with the blue and grey scarf supports New England (as do I). Not sure who the occasional penguin supports ;-) Oh, and please RSVP on http://www.cokepolarbowl.com/ because Coca-Cola will spend some money to the WWF in relation to the number of RSVPs.

17
Jan

LS12 INV302 Strategy in Action: IBM Mobile for Social Business 

Being very interested in the topic of mobile devices this was of course a very interesting session that I definately would have visited on site: “LS12 INV302 Strategy in Action: IBM Mobile for Social Business”. Very nice by IBM to provide this one as a recorded stream.

Especially the demos by Chris Crummey showed a lot about the great mobile offerings being available especially for Connections … and yes, one more time to realize that Connections is a central part of the IBM social business strategy. Like it or not - it’s a fact!

Being a huge fan of Zite I absolutely loved the magazine style dashboard Chris showed in the last part of this session!

Watch live streaming video from ibmsoftware at livestream.com
17
Jan

Ed Brills LS12 session and a much clearer roadmap 

After watching Ed Brills presentation at LS12 the roadmap became much clearer to me.

Like the name “Social Edition” or not but in my opinion it’s only the tool closing the gap from Notes/Domino 8.5.3 and Connection to an integrated 9.x “whatever-it-will-be-named” solution. But don’t be fooled - the social edition release is already half way to 9.0. So it’s not just a name change … there’s a lot of stuff under the hood and Notes/Domino 8.54 with Social Edition add-on will be much more than just a simple point release.

Honestly, that’s the “one more thing” I expected on OGS. And of course they mentioned it but unfortunately I wasn’t made as clear as it should be. So thanks to Ed Brill and his session to offer this “one more thing” moment to me today! :-)

I highly reccommend to watch that session as it really shows were IBM is heading:

ibmsoftware on livestream.com. Broadcast Live Free
16
Jan
Lotusphere is always something special … and not being at Lotusphere is always a bit sad. Unfortunately LS2006 was the last I attended in person in Orlando.
Whenever possible I followed the bloggers on-site through the week and especially the Opening General Session (OGS) … but of course it’s not the same as being there.
This time IBM offered a live stream of the OGS and it was a great experience. It eases the pain of not being there a little bit. And it was fun to interact with those being in Orlando as well as with some of the over 1,200 viewers of the livestream.
Sitting at a Munich Starbucks and being directly connected to a live event happening in Orlando … another example how small the world became today and what technologie can do nowadays.
Regarding the OGS itself I have mixed feeling. Michael J. Fox was a great speaker. Kudos for IBM’s choice this year. It was somewhat sad to see his current condition and what Parkinson had done with this great actor … but it was inspiring at the same time how he challenges himself. I’m not sure if I would be able to speak in front of several thousand people under that circumstances!
In regards of the products: IBM Connections Next looked very impressive. But for Notes / Domino it becomes clear that the product is alive and in good condition but without adding connections you definately are missing the cake. To get full value of what the next-family is offering Connections is a “must have”. And I am not sure if I am really happy about that.
The cat is out of the bag in terms of names: The next version of Notes/Domino will be called Notes / Domino Social Edition. I am fine with that “official” name but still curious what the “street name” will be. Still smells a bit like Buzzword Bingo added to a product name ;-)
But renaming “Lotus Live” into “IBM Smart Cloud for Social Business” is a bit weired. I agree with @EdBrill that “Smart Cloud Engage” isn’t that bad but why not sticking with “IBM Smart Cloud” for the product line. That’s what the people will call it anyway. Adding “Social Business” is just Buzzword Bingo, too!
I am sure the attendees of Lotusphere 2012 will explore a lot of great stuff … and also this was a good overall OGS I missed the “There’s one more thing” that’s really exciting.
Notes/Domino is far away from being dead or killed. I think it’s like the new black backpacks for the LS 2012 attendees. There may be only black outside … but there’s a lot of yellow inside ;-)
(backpack picture found at: http://noteshexe.de/blog/?p=2012)

Lotusphere is always something special … and not being at Lotusphere is always a bit sad. Unfortunately LS2006 was the last I attended in person in Orlando.

Whenever possible I followed the bloggers on-site through the week and especially the Opening General Session (OGS) … but of course it’s not the same as being there.

This time IBM offered a live stream of the OGS and it was a great experience. It eases the pain of not being there a little bit. And it was fun to interact with those being in Orlando as well as with some of the over 1,200 viewers of the livestream.

Sitting at a Munich Starbucks and being directly connected to a live event happening in Orlando … another example how small the world became today and what technologie can do nowadays.

Regarding the OGS itself I have mixed feeling. Michael J. Fox was a great speaker. Kudos for IBM’s choice this year. It was somewhat sad to see his current condition and what Parkinson had done with this great actor … but it was inspiring at the same time how he challenges himself. I’m not sure if I would be able to speak in front of several thousand people under that circumstances!

In regards of the products: IBM Connections Next looked very impressive. But for Notes / Domino it becomes clear that the product is alive and in good condition but without adding connections you definately are missing the cake. To get full value of what the next-family is offering Connections is a “must have”. And I am not sure if I am really happy about that.

The cat is out of the bag in terms of names: The next version of Notes/Domino will be called Notes / Domino Social Edition. I am fine with that “official” name but still curious what the “street name” will be. Still smells a bit like Buzzword Bingo added to a product name ;-)

But renaming “Lotus Live” into “IBM Smart Cloud for Social Business” is a bit weired. I agree with @EdBrill that “Smart Cloud Engage” isn’t that bad but why not sticking with “IBM Smart Cloud” for the product line. That’s what the people will call it anyway. Adding “Social Business” is just Buzzword Bingo, too!

I am sure the attendees of Lotusphere 2012 will explore a lot of great stuff … and also this was a good overall OGS I missed the “There’s one more thing” that’s really exciting.

The new backback (borrowed from http://noteshexe.de/blog/?p=2012)Notes/Domino is far away from being dead or killed. I think it’s like the new black backpacks for the LS 2012 attendees. There may be only black outside … but there’s a lot of yellow inside ;-)

(backpack picture found at: http://noteshexe.de/blog/?p=2012)

4
Nov
My iCloud restore experience … it wasn’t planned to test the iCloud that early but well, situations like that mostly happen when you don’t expect them.
I’m not sure what went wrong in the first place but after downloading some music on the iPad and doing a sync with iTunes those new tunes refused to work. Even worse, I had some tunes just playing the next title instead. A total mess - but only on the iPad. Everything was fine on iTunes and the iPhone.
Tried to sync a few times but couldn’t get it fixed. Then I made a big mistake: Instead of just unmarking music sync in iTunes, syncing one time and then marking it again, I removed the playlists on the iPad. Very big mistake. Of course the deletions synchronised to iTunes and now my playlists had been gone. Was able to recreate them from a backupfile that wasn’t too old but still had the problem that the music was messed up on the iPad.
Therefore it was time for a restore. I do iCloud backup and my newest backup was from last night (less than 18 hours old). I had all the new purchased titles already on iTunes and the iPhone so I gave it a shot.
The restore process via iCloud is great, it definately “just works”! No cables just answering a few questions (location services, wlan, Agrrement etc.) and then you tell your device to restore from the last backup.
The settings and all the basic stuff (including the folders and the app bodys) is there immediately. Of course it takes some time to restore all the apps (about 2 hours for me) but that’s no problem. As soon as an app is fully loaded you can use it. The load process goes from the first app/folder on your home screen to the last. So if you have your most important apps in front those will be loaded first and you’re immediately ready to continue working with your device.
While the process is great in general you have to keep some things in mind:
Only music from the iTunes store is included in the backup. So if you have digitalised CD’s or music from other sources don’t get rid of your PC. You have to sync with iTunes at the end to get them back!
Videos in the photo app aren’t part of the photostream. Therefore they are not part of the backup either. Lost four videos that way. Not a big deal in that case but a thing to remember. Put them on dropbox or some other place before restoring. O.K., I was wrong on this! Apparently they are not put back into the self created folders but they are still part of the backup and can be found in the Standard or Imported folder. So I just had to add them back to their appropriate folders. Good news! :-)
Same is of course valid for any data from apps that don’t support iCloud. If you want to know which apps are storing documents & data for the backup just check “General - Usage” (weird location as I rather would expect it in the iCloud section)
So beside those small hickups this was a nice way to recreate my device. And the music titles in question started to work again. Unfortunately my playlist problems still remained so I had to empty the music on my iPhone too. This time I made it in the right order … but (yes, this was a bad day yesterday!) after enabling music again my PC went down with a bluescreen about 5 minutes before the final sync was finished. Now the iPhone seems to be in a sync-loop and it looks like I have to get a restore there too.
Anyway, I would definately reccommend to use iCloud backup rather than iTunes backup. Just use common sense to ask yourself which stuff should be stored seperately … just in case ;-) 

My iCloud restore experience … it wasn’t planned to test the iCloud that early but well, situations like that mostly happen when you don’t expect them.

I’m not sure what went wrong in the first place but after downloading some music on the iPad and doing a sync with iTunes those new tunes refused to work. Even worse, I had some tunes just playing the next title instead. A total mess - but only on the iPad. Everything was fine on iTunes and the iPhone.

Tried to sync a few times but couldn’t get it fixed. Then I made a big mistake: Instead of just unmarking music sync in iTunes, syncing one time and then marking it again, I removed the playlists on the iPad. Very big mistake. Of course the deletions synchronised to iTunes and now my playlists had been gone. Was able to recreate them from a backupfile that wasn’t too old but still had the problem that the music was messed up on the iPad.

Therefore it was time for a restore. I do iCloud backup and my newest backup was from last night (less than 18 hours old). I had all the new purchased titles already on iTunes and the iPhone so I gave it a shot.

The restore process via iCloud is great, it definately “just works”! No cables just answering a few questions (location services, wlan, Agrrement etc.) and then you tell your device to restore from the last backup.

The settings and all the basic stuff (including the folders and the app bodys) is there immediately. Of course it takes some time to restore all the apps (about 2 hours for me) but that’s no problem. As soon as an app is fully loaded you can use it. The load process goes from the first app/folder on your home screen to the last. So if you have your most important apps in front those will be loaded first and you’re immediately ready to continue working with your device.

While the process is great in general you have to keep some things in mind:

  • Only music from the iTunes store is included in the backup. So if you have digitalised CD’s or music from other sources don’t get rid of your PC. You have to sync with iTunes at the end to get them back!
  • Videos in the photo app aren’t part of the photostream. Therefore they are not part of the backup either. Lost four videos that way. Not a big deal in that case but a thing to remember. Put them on dropbox or some other place before restoring. O.K., I was wrong on this! Apparently they are not put back into the self created folders but they are still part of the backup and can be found in the Standard or Imported folder. So I just had to add them back to their appropriate folders. Good news! :-)
  • Same is of course valid for any data from apps that don’t support iCloud. If you want to know which apps are storing documents & data for the backup just check “General - Usage” (weird location as I rather would expect it in the iCloud section)


So beside those small hickups this was a nice way to recreate my device. And the music titles in question started to work again. Unfortunately my playlist problems still remained so I had to empty the music on my iPhone too. This time I made it in the right order … but (yes, this was a bad day yesterday!) after enabling music again my PC went down with a bluescreen about 5 minutes before the final sync was finished. Now the iPhone seems to be in a sync-loop and it looks like I have to get a restore there too.

Anyway, I would definately reccommend to use iCloud backup rather than iTunes backup. Just use common sense to ask yourself which stuff should be stored seperately … just in case ;-) 

13
Apr

Why I finally fell in love with TripIt 

Why I finally fell in love with TripIt

I love to try and test new social tools but when I find one I like I usually stick with it for that particular area for a long time. In regards of travel related stuff I originally used “Plazes”. I especially loved their map badge that could be integrated easily into every blog or webpage (this was long before Foursquare was around). Unfortunately after they were aquired by Nokia I wasn’t too happy with their design changes.

So my next stopp had been “Dopplr”. No map but still a nice badge and I (still) like their idea to color code destinations. But as with most tools they come with a big downside: Adding the data manually. As well as most other people I only have a certain amount of time available and I need tools that integrate into each other easily. If not it becomes a burden to keep them accurate after some time.

I’m still fine with the trio Facebook – Twitter – Foursquare. If I have content that goes into Facebook, I do it there. If I have content for either Twitter or Twitter & Facebook, I’ll do it in Twitter. And for location based stuff I use Foursquare, either alone or in combination with Twitter and/or Facebook. But in all these cases I have a single point of data entry. I just have to think about which is the right one and who do I want to address.

Therefore I started to be lazy on updating my data on Dopplr and recently checked out TripItagain. I did look at TripIt when they were quite new but never felt comfortable with them at that time. Not sure if they changed or if I changed (or both) but from the beginning I felt well at home there now.

Of course you can enter your trip data manually. That’s what I did with my first trip. And even so it isn’t complicated I started to think about the fact how long I might be able to keep it accurate over a longer time frame. But then I found the real power of TripIt: In most cases you don’t need to punch your stuff in manually. Just use your confirmation email and forward it to plans@tripit.com (of course only from one of your registered email adresses) and your trip information magically appears in TripIt just a few seconds later.

But it even get’s better! You have an iPhone or Android device? Then you have to get the TripIt App. Why? Because with the synced data from TripIt you never have to think about were to store your travel information. Every bit (flight times and numbers, Hotel addresses etc.) can easily be accessed with a fingertip.

Honestly, I still have to do my first trip (starting tomorrow) but I already can’t imagine anymore how I was able to travel without that tool. Of course you can connect it to Facebook and Twitter to automatically generate footprints of your trip.

And no, this is not a paid or forced advertisement! It’s just a tool I think that is so great that one has to write about it. If you know anything better then TripIt let me know … but I tell you, those features are hard to beat. And if you haven’t tried it – give it a try. Even for an occasional leisure traveler this tool has a lot of advantages and can be a great help to ease your trip organisation!