I was fortunate to get an early copy “Open Leadership – How Social Technology can transform the way you lead”, the latest book of Charlene Li (co-author of the best seller Groundswell) that combines different areas that interest me:  (1) the social media revolution, (2) leadership, and (3) corporate strategy.

In this article I will provide an overview of the book, and highlight some interesting parts and give you an idea about the structure of the book and the way it is written. On the other hand I won’t give away all the interesting details, so you need to do some reading yourself.

Introduction

“Open Leadership explains how leaders can use new social and collaborative technologies to improve efficiency, communication and decision-making for both themselves and their organizations. I show step-by-step how to bring the rigor of this new openness to relationships both inside and outside of the organization, with supporting case studies and examples from many different companies, industries and countries.”

The book Open Leadership consists of three parts that will be thoroughly discussed in the upcoming sections of the article.

• Part I:  The upside of giving up control;
• Part II:  Crafting your open strategy;
• Part III:  Open leadership: Redefining relationships

Part I:  The upside of giving up control

The first part of the book Open Leadership starts with how technology has enabled individuals to broadcast their views to the global audience.

Not only are there more and more people online, also the costs of communication have dropped dramatically. Today almost everyone can have an own website or blog at limited costs, and a lot of people are actively building value networks through social (media) websites.

For corporate leaders, who are normally using causal logic instead of more effectual logic, this can result in a huge dilemma. In order to solve this dilemma, open leadership needs to be defined as well as the rules of open leadership.

“Open leadership is defined as having the confidence and humility to give up the need to be in control while inspiring commitment from people to accomplish goals” (Li, 2010, p. 14)

In order to better understand open leadership, you first need to define the first term “open / openness”. Charline Li uses ten elements, in two “categories”  information sharing and open decision making, to define the term openness. In this picture above you can see an overview of the ten elements of openness, to get an idea of the dimensions of this construct.

The openess audit

Charlene Li, furthermore has developed an openness audit, based on the described ten elements above. The openness audit is “a diagnostic tool to understand where the organization is open and where not” (Li, 2010,p. 44) The openness audit is the starting point to think about an open strategy and indirect the transformation process to lead in an open way.

Part II:  Crafting your open strategy

The second part of the book Open Leadership helps you to systematically develop an open strategy, that fits the current situation of your company. Results of Charlene Li’s work show that there are “four underlying objectives integrated into almost every successful strategic plan.” (Li, 2010, p. 53).

The four open driven objectives are shown on the right side of the picture above, and consist of (1) learn, (2) dialog, (3) support, and (4) innovate. In this context it was interesting to read about the new nature of engagement and the use of the engagement pyramid.

The main question is how to deeply integrate the open strategy into the overall corporate strategy, while asking the question “how open does the company need to be ?” The left side of the picture above provides a step-by-step action plan to create your open strategy.

The next step is to better understand the benefits of being open and measure these benefits. There are not only “multiple ways to look at the benefits of openness” (Li, 2010, 100) but there are also no prescribed set of parameters to measure these benefits of openness. Therefore you need to create your own performance indicators and keep in mind why your are using these specific metrics. The picture above shows the step-by-step action plan to calculate the benefits of openness.

An interesting part is the use of (sandbox) covenants to structure the construct of openness. In this area you need to think of a set of common-agreed-on guidelines, which can be used to structure openness and set the boundaries of the sandbox.

“Covenants are promises that people make with each other, which differ from traditional corporate policies and procedures that dictate how things will operate within organizations” (Li, 2010, p. 109)

One of the interesting chapters is chapter 6 that provides you tools to orchestrate the open strategy. The focus here is really on the organizational level of crafting your open strategy: (1) create a socialgraphics profile, (2) identify key workflows, (3) identify key stakeholders, (4) chose organizational models for openness and (5) assign roles an responsibilities.

Just like Lee Odden, Editor of the TopRank, Online Marketing Blog, this is absolutely one of my favorite chapters of the Open Leadership book. Because I see this as one of the key chapters I wont spoil the fun and give away all the details !

Part III:  Open leadership: Redefining relationships

The third part of the book Open Leadership focuses on the leadership part. The picture above provides an overview of the four open leadership archetypes and the dimensions to identify an open leader.

The open leadership audit

Charlene Li included an open leadership audit, which is a self-assessment of the open leadership mindset to provides insights in- and helps you to understand where- your biases lie.  The scores of the open leadership audit are integrated with the four quadrants of the open leadership archetypes above.  Just like the openness audit it is a starting point on the individual level to (further) develop your open leadership skills.

Chapter 8 titled “Nurturing open leadership”, is a highly interesting chapter in my personal view of the book. It discusses concepts like authenticity, transparency and how you can support open leadership with technology. Following mind-sets and skills are essential for open leadership:

1. Passion for the vision;
2. Focus on relationships;
3. “Hacker” mentality;

Furthermore you can read how a company can lead its open leaders or how open leaders can be trained.

The open leadership skills assessment test

The open leadership skills assessment test helps to find out how well developed your open leadership skills are: overall leadership capabilities and using social technology as a tool to extend your open leadership throughout the organization and marketplace.

The last chapters of the third part of the book Open Leadership focuses (1) on the preparation of a failure plan, because at some point an open leader can fail when it comes to using social technologies, and (2) how openness transforms organizations, with help of some striking real-life examples.

Overall thoughts and conclusions

Recently I have published two articles that provide statistics about social networks and their growing importance:

1. A SlideShare presentation ”What the f**k is social media now ?” ;
2. A video introduction of the “Making the Social Connection” session with Tony Krijnen,  Daniel van Soest and Charlie Kindel @ DevDays 2010 !“;

In both articles I was impressed with the laws of the large numbers that power the trends and growing strategic importance of the use of social networks. Open Leadership helps you first to understand this social revolution, while second it provides helpful systematic tools and insights to manage openness and the use of social technology.

The large number of real-life examples (successes and failures) of Fortune 500 companies, my favorite company Microsoft included, help to better understand and memorize the theory. The action plan in almost every chapter provides great summary and helps to operationalize the transformation to open leadership (individually and on a corporate level) !

Open Leadership is a must-read book for the modern professional involved in social technology, corporate strategy, leadership, organizational change, innovation. Buy Open Leadership directly from the website (in combination with the book Groundswell), or read the introduction chapter on SlideShare!

Finally I would like to thank Charlene Li for the opportunity to work through the advanced reading copy of the amazing Open Leadership book !

About Charlene Li

“Charlene Li is founder of the Altimeter Group and the coauthor of the critically acclaimed, bestselling book Groundswell. She is one of the foremost experts on social media and technologies and a consultant and independent thought leader on leadership, strategy, social technologies, interactive media and marketing. Formerly Li was vice president and principal analyst at Forrester Research and a consultant with Monitor Group. She was named one of the 12 most creative minds of 2008 by Fast Company, and one of the most influential women in technology 2009. ”

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Windows Phone 7 development reached an important milestone yesterday, with the release of the Windows Phone 7 Technical Preview on  prototype phones from Asus, LG and Samsung !

“Microsoft reached a major milestone with development of Windows Phone 7 and has devices loaded with the Technical Preview that will be sent to thousands of developers.”

Windows Phone 7 (series at that point in time) was first presented to the public during Mobile World Congress in Barcelona earlier this year. The focus of this first chapter in the Windows Phone 7 story was mainly on the new graphical userinterface and the hubs.

Microsoft outlined the second chapter of the Windows Phone 7 story at the MIX 2010 conference, where the more technical details were filled in. I would like to recommend the article “Videos of MIX10 Windows Phone sessions” by Charlie Kindel on the Windows Phone Developer Blog.

The Windows Phone 7 Technical Preview is another chapter in the Windows Phone 7 story, since developers are now able to test the applications they have been building not just in the emulator, but on real prototype devices.

Windows Phone 7 reaches a major Milestone

Terry Myerson, Corporate Vice President of Windows Phone Engineering, published an article on the Windows Phone Blog in which he shares some additional information about the Technical Preview milestone:

“Before release of this milestone, the software has undergone extensive testing – in daily use by more than 1000 people at Microsoft who have been using WP7 as their only phone for the past several months, and the more than 10,000 devices in our test labs. We’ve been testing usability, battery life, network connectivity, and many other metrics for a long time. As a result of that work, I hope you will find the experience to be of surprisingly high quality.”

Furthermore you can read in the Windows Phone Blog article:

“Starting today, thousands of prototype phones from Asus, LG and Samsung are making their way into the hands of developers over the next few weeks. Combine that with the beta release of the Windows Phone developer tools, and I can’t wait to see how our developer partners take advantage of our new approach to smart design and integrated mobile experiences.”

In the context of the Windows Phone 7 Technical Preview I highly recommend the exclusive interview of Joshua Topolsky with Joe Belfiore, corporate VP of Windows Phone.

Image used with permission from Engadget article “Windows Phone 7 in-depth preview“

Windows Phone 7 Technical Preview coverage of well respected websites

The prototype phones with the Windows Phone Technical Preview have not only been making their way into the hands of developers.

A limited group experts and mobile technology websites received a Samsung -i8910 Omnia HD like- developer phone pre-loaded with the latest Windows Phone 7 Technical Preview as well, and below you can find a comprehensive list with reviews.

Mobius friends’ thoughts and experiences with the Windows Phone 7 Technical Preview

• Matthew Miller, ZDNet – Microsoft Windows Phone 7 technical preview: A definitive guide;
• Joshua Topolsky & Chris Ziegler, Engadget – Windows Phone 7 in-depth preview;
• Vincent Nguyen, Slashgear – Windows Phone 7 Technical Preview;
• Michael Gartenberg, Gartenblog – First Hands On With Windows Phone 7;
• Lance Ulanoff, PC Magazine – Hands On: Windows Phone 7 Technical Preview;

Matthew Miller, Joshua Topolsky & Chris Ziegler and Vincent Nguyen have really published some impressive in-depth monster reviews with lost of pictures and video’s. These are certainly worthwhile to read, despite you need to take some time to digg through very insightful reviews.

Other well respected experts put the Windows Phone 7 Technical Preview to the test

• Paul Thurrott, Pault Thurrott’s SuperSite for Windows, Hands-On with Windows Phone 7; 
• Matt Buchanan, Gizmodo – Windows Phone 7 In Depth: A Fresh Start;
• Bonnie Cha, CNET – Windows Phone 7 preview;
• Daniel Dums, Wired – Video Lab: First Look and Hands-On With Windows Phone 7;
• Dan Nosowitz, Fast Company – Hands-On With Windows Phone 7 Shows Innovative Interface (and Worrisome Rough Edges);
• Boy Genius, Boy Genius Report – Microsoft Windows Phone 7 Preview;

I was fortunate to meet Paul Thurrott during TechNet_Live last year, where he was a keynote speaker because of the book Windows 7 secrets !!

Paul Thurrott really covers the whole spectrum of Microsoft products and -services from Windows, Office, Windows Live to Xbox and Windows Phone, so it is certainly interesting to read his idea’s and first thoughts.

Overall conclusions and wrap-up

I must admit that I have spent quite some time reading through the reviews and the observations of fellow tech writers and friends. I think each review is worthwhile to read and gives you a great multi-perspective overview of the completely from scratch designed Windows Phone 7 (mobile operating system).

George Ponder, Editor of WMExperts, has summarized the consistent positives, negatives and unknowns throughout the reviews in a nice re-cap of the Windows Phone 7 Technical Preview. In general the reviews are very positive, which correlates witth my personal experience with earlier builds of Windows Phone 7, since I have been fortunate to get a close look and feel of Windows Phone 7 during two local Microsoft events:

1. Charlie Kindel Interview – Discussing Windows Phone 7 @ DevDays 2010;
2. LG Panther Windows Phone 7 prototype @ Windows Phone Get Together Event, Netherlands and Windows Phone Get Together Event – Microsoft engaging with end-users !

Charlie Kindel  provided me with a “private” Windows Phone 7 demo on the well known Asus prototype. Furthermore I had some hands-on time with the LG Panther prototype about a month ago during the Windows Phone Get Together Event. I concluded that “the LG Panther and Windows Phone 7 felt snappy, responsive and showed fluid motions.”.

If I look back at both times, you can realy feel the ongoing improvement and optimization of the platform. Sometimes it are just some little details that support this reasoning, and remark the comment of Terry Myerson, Corporate Vice President of Windows Phone Engineering about the stability of the Windows Phone 7 Technical Preview.

Combined with more and more awesome (concepts of) Windows Phone 7 applications, it clearly shows that the Microsoft Ecosystem is in the move. I’m definitely very excited towards the upcomming months and the launch of the retail Windows Phone 7 devices.

“I love Windows Phone”

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On July 2nd, one day before the start of Le Tour de France  2010, there are a lot of events on and around the prologue track.

HTC UK organized a HTC Participation ride with Erik Zabel and Tristan Hoffman around the Kralingse Plas in Rotterdam. It is a great location to cycle with lots of green, and honestly I didn’t have the feeling to be very close to a large city like Rotterdam.

Meet Erik Zabel, Tristan Hoffman and team HTC-Columbia

In this picture above you can see Erik Zabel, Tristan Hoffman and the participating HTC Columbia team-members lining up for the truck.

• Eric Zabel, Advisor;

“With over 200 professional wins Erik Zabel is considered by some one of the greatest German cyclists and best cycling sprinters of history. Zabel won a record nine points classifications in grands tours including wearing the final green jersey in the Tour de France a record six consecutive years between 1996 to 2001 and the points jersey at the Vuelta a España in 2002, 2003 and 2004. Zabel won the Milan-Sanremo four times and numerous six-day track events.”

• Tristan Hoffman, Sports Director;

“Tristan Hoffman, Sports Director, brings strong Classics racing experience to Team HTC-Columbia. He raced until 2004, was Dutch National Champion in 1992, and finished in the top five in Paris Roubaix three times.”

• Helge Riepenhof, M.D. Head Team Doctor;
• Luise Keller;
• Gert Dockx;
• Jan Ghyselinck;

In the list above you can follow the links to the HTC Columbia athletes, which brings you to their personal page with race wins and background information.

The ride around the Kralingse Plas

The ride itself wasn’t really difficult or hard to complete, since it were laps around the Kralingse Plas at an average speed. Of course the great part with the interaction with the riders, who were extremely easy going, open and approachable.

• I had a nice conversation with Jan Ghyselinck about the Shimano Dura-Ace Di2, the intelligent Shimano electronic shifting group, which is mounted on the Scott Addict Team;
• With Luise Keller I talked about women cycling, and the cycling programs for young riders now (compared to some years ago);
• Helge Riepenhof was riding one of the Scott Project F01 bikes, so we discussed the improvements over the Scott Addict bikes. Furthermore we discussed topics like the  SRM Training System – PowerMeter + PowerControl, the new HED wheels in the Scott Project F01 bike, and the technology leadership that HTC brings to the HTC Columbia team !
• And last but not least there was time to ride side by side with Erik Zabel and Tristan Hoffman. I asked both of them about their current activities for the team, and was interested in their training programs since both Zabel and Hoffman really looked strong;

One of the unique characteristics of road cycling is that you can get very close to the riders. Remark for example the pictures of the mountain stages in Le Tour de France, where the walls of people split in two when the riders pass by.

Since we were just with a small number of people it was almost a private cycling clinic, that was extremely cool to experience (certainly if you are a hobby road cyclist yourself) and a lot of fun as well !!

HTC-Columbia Team Jersey signed for “Child Cancer Just Beat It”

A few weeks ago I wrote an article on this blog about the Child Cancer Just Beat It initiative, after one of my cycling friends, who is a product manager at Berner Benelux, asked me if I wanted to buy a blue “Just Beat It bracelet”.

Berner Benelux is going to support Child Cancer foundations in Belgium, The Netherlands and Luxembourg for 18 months, in the light of their corporate social responsibility programs.

“Renewed research on child cancer requires a specific approach that is geared toward specific genetic characteristics of child cancer. VZW Child Cancer Foundation in Belgium, Kika in The Netherlands and Kriibskrank Kanner Foundation in Luxembourg, are asking for extra support for these types of research.”

During the HTC participation ride I explained to team HTC-Columbia that I attended the HTC participation ride in a special role as goodwill ambassador for the ”Child Cancer Just Beat It” foundation, and asked the team if it was possible to sign a HTC-Columbia jersey that will be auctioned for the fight against child cancer.

Erik Zabel, Tristan Hoffman and the rest of the team have been very supportive and were more than willing to contribute with a relative small thing like a signature ! In the picture above you can see me holding the team HTC-Columbia jersey, while Eric Zabel puts his signature on it !

Overall experiences of a great cycling event

My compliments to HTC UK, HTC Netherlands and team HTC-Columbia for the excellent organization and participation in such a great cycling event.

For me as a hobby cyclist it was awesome to ride with the HTC-Columbia team, dedicated professionals who are passionate about their sport with an impressive drive for succes and winning !!

The interaction with the riders was awesome, who were friendly, easy going, open and approachable. It really felt like I was riding with some good friends that you know for a 10 years. Foremost it was fun, with great sunny weather and a nice location with lots of green close to Le Grand Depart 2010 in Rotterdam.

Child Cancer – Just Beat It

Furthermore I attended the HTC participation ride in a special role as goodwill ambassador for the ”Child Cancer Just Beat It” foundation ! I would like to thank the members of team HTC-Columbia for their willingness, contribution and support for the fight against child cancer.

The HTC-Columbia team-members signed a team jersey that will be auctioned, and on behalf of Berner Benelux and the Child Cancer Just Beat It foundation I’m really humble and greatfull for this gesture !!

It was a great day and let’s hope for some great results of team HTC-Columbia in Le Tour de France 2010 !

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Last week I attended the very first edition of the Windows Phone Get Together event in Utrecht, the Netherlands.  I think it is pretty unique to have an event in which a large company like Microsoft directly interacts and engages with end-users of their products.

You can read an extensive event report on MobilityMinded, and please put November 9th in your agenda when the next Windows Phone Get Together event will take place @ Microsoft Netherlands HQ.

Meet the local Dutch Windows Phone Team !

Maarten Sonneveld, Business Group Lead Mobile @ Microsoft Netherlands, opens the event with an introduction of the local Dutch Windows Phone team, and the Dutch Windows Phone Microsoft Most Valuable Professionals (MVP), Jaap van Ekris, Mark Briggeman, Halil Yüksel. 

Johan van Mierlo was visiting the Netherlands for a few days and was announced as well, as a USA Windows Phone MVP visiting the Windows Phone Get Together event.

Windows Phone Forum application – Aggregation of Dutch Windows Phone news  

Windows Phone Forum application 1.0, that aggregates news and information from the Dutch Windows Phone Forums, the Blog of the Dutch Windows Phone team and its Twitter feed.

MobileLayers, the company of Halil Yüksel, has developed this application for Windows Phone, commissioned by Microsoft Netherlands. In the review of the Windows Phone Forum application 1.0 you can read more about the features and functions of this application.

Download the Windows Phone Forum application directly from the MobileLayers website.

Windows Mobile 6.5.3 – Now and the future strategic direction

Windows Mobile 6.5.3 will be strategically (re)directed towards the large business customers compared to the wider, more consumer-oriented offering of Windows Phone 7.

Windows Mobile 6.5.3 powered Phones (and its applications) will continue to exist and continue to be supported. Meet some of the latest Windows Mobile 6.5.3 phones:  (1) Samsung Omnia Pro 4, (2) Sony Ericsson Aspen, and (3) HTC HD Mini.

It was great to hear some official news/information about the strategic direction of Windows Mobile 6.5.3, despite the intense focus on Windows Phone 7 !

Windows Phone 7 – A different kind of phone, designed for life in motion, with integrated experiences

HTC, Samsung, LG, Sony Ericsson, Dell, Toshiba, Acer, and Asus are original equipment manufacturers who have committed to build Windows Phone 7 devices. 

Great news to see the hardware part of the Windows Phone 7 ecosystem take off, and I’m looking forward to some new fresh hardware designs that maximize productivity and efficiency of the Windows Phone 7 mobile operating system. Without giving any preference to anyone of the Microsof OEM Partners above, I would like to recall my excitement about the Dell Lightning Windows Phone that cleverly integrates a physical full QWERTY keyboard.

Furthermore it seems that you can expect the first Windows Phone 7 device(s) become available in the Netherlands via online retailer Coolblue around October/November this year.

Back in March this year I was fortunate to interview Charlie Kindel, Partner Group Program Manager for the Windows Phone Application Platform & Developer Experience, during the DevDays 2010 event in the Netherlands. The questions in the Q&A session of the Windows Phone Get Together Event showed some resemblance with the questions that I asked Charlie Kindel. The audience was a great mix of 90 people that approached Windows Phone 7 from different perspectives (customer, developer, technical decision maker, resulting in a highly interesting and lively discussion.

Developers who want to learn more about Windows Phone 7 development, could read the DevDays 2010 event report which addresses the sessions of Rob Miles, Microsoft Most Valuable Professional and lecturer in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Hull. The slide decks, recordings of the sessions and code samples on his website can really help you jumpstart development for Windows Phone 7.

Don’t forget to check out the PowerPoint Slides of Albert Shum, Michael Smuga, Chad Roberts about the Windows Phone UI and Metro Design Language, and the Engadget Windows Phone 7 complete guide !

Image used from Pocket Lint article “Windows Phone 7 and LG Panther hands-on, Fully-working prototype spied at Microsoft demo“

Hands-on time with a LG Panther Windows Phone 7 prototype

By far the coolest part of the Windows Phone Get Together event is the hands-on time with a (working) prototype of the LG Panther running a recent build of Windows Phone 7.

Everyone from the audience was allowed to get an idea of the real look and feel of Windows Phone 7, which is completely different than seeing it in PowerPoint SlideShows or YouTube videos. This is the real deal, and if you think about this, it is a very unique situation that Microsoft allows end-users to have some hands-on time with prototype hardware AND software !

It is very special and exciting to hold the LG Panther and make the first gestures through the Metro Windows Phone GUI, even despite the private demo of Charlie Kindel a little while ago. Overall the LG Panther and Windows Phone 7 felt snappy, responsive and showed fluid motions.

Unfortunately there was no copy of the Harvest, a 3D Xbox Live game on Windows Phone 7, loaded onto the LG Panther. Since the gaming hub has been one of the items that really impressed me during the MIX 2010 keynotes in terms of performance and power.

We were asked not to take pictures of the device, and of course I play by the rules of the game. There for I included the picture above  of a Pocket Lint article, showing a very similar LG Panther (except for the color of the theme). In the context of these Windows Phone 7 prototypes I would like to bring the Samsung Omnia i8910-based Windows Phone 7 prototype phone, to your attention that has been covered by the Engadget team.

Despite it is still uncertain if you will see successors of these prototypes on the massmarket it is very nice to see different hardware designs and formfactors. This partly answers the question that differentiation in terms of hardware is possible. 

I’m really looking forward to the Windows Phone 7 devices from the mentioned Microsoft OEM Partners !

Concluding thoughts and wrap-up

I think it is pretty unique to have an event in which a large company like Microsoft directly interacts and engages with end-users of their products.  

It is even a more unique situation that Microsoft allows end-users to have some hands-on time with prototype hardware AND software ! However I think this has been the coolest part of the Windows Phone Get Together Event for a lot of attendees. Furthermore it helps in the process of telling the story and spread the news in an open and transparent way !

The LG Panther prototype and Windows Phone 7 had responsive look & feel resulting in fluid motions. Furthermore I see more and more awesome (concepts of) Windows Phone 7 applications like BusTrack, used for real-time tracking of Chicago buses, or the good old Minesweeper ! This clearly shows that the Microsoft Ecosystem is in the move, and I’m looking forward to the upcoming months !

Finally it was great to catch-up with old friends, the local Dutch Windows Phone team, and the attending Microsoft partners.

My compliments to Microsoft Netherlands and the partners Samsung & Coolblue for the excellent organization of the Windows Phone Get Together event, and see you all at the second Windows Phone Get Together Event on November 9th !!

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Almost everyone has experienced (directly or indirectly) the impact of a terrible dissease like cancer in the circle of close friends and family. It is even more tragic when young childeren are hit by this class of disseases called cancer, as defined by wikipedia:

“Cancer is a class of diseases in which a group of cells display uncontrolled growth (division beyond the normal limits), invasion (intrusion on and destruction of adjacent tissues), and sometimes metastasis (spread to other locations in the body via lymph or blood).”

Recently one of my cycling friends, who is a product manager at Berner Benelux, asked me if I wanted to buy a blue “Just Beat It bracelet” in order to support the fight against child cancer. The answer to this question is a definite “YES, I’ll buy a few” without blinking an eye !

Corporate Social Responsibility with a personal touch

You could place this great initiative in the context of the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) discussion, which is becoming more and more important for companies today. The European Commission of of Enterprise and Industry defines Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) as:

“A concept whereby companies integrate social and environmental concerns in their business operations and in their interaction with their stakeholders on a voluntary basis.”

Unfortunately is the Child Cancer Foundation Just Beat It, a form of Corporate Social Responsibility with a personal touch.

“We chose for the fight against childcancer because, unfortunately, a couple of Berner co-workers are currently experiencing it first hand and know what it means when your child is struck by cancer. Besides, looking at people around us, we all can imagine what this means and the impact cancer has on the young patients and their families.”

I would like to invite you all to read the story of Raymond Ruwette, warehouse employee at Berner in Landgraaf, who’s 4-year old son is diagnosed with cancer. The interview with Raymond Ruwette provides a slight idea of the impact that child cancer has on the diagnosed child, its parents and the neighbourhood of family and friends.

“In the past, Berner has supported all kinds of good causes. We are “experts with passion” and often show that we are also “experts with a heart”. This time, we will support Child Cancer foundations in Belgium, The Netherlands and Luxembourg for 18 months. Renewed research on child cancer requires a specific approach that is geared toward specific genetic characteristics of child cancer. VZW Child Cancer Foundation in Belgium, Kika in The Netherlands and Kriibskrank Kanner Foundation in Luxembourg, are asking for extra support for these types of research.”

In the text above from the Just Beat It Child Cancer Foundation website, there are a few interesting facts! Berner Benelux supports a child cancer foundation in each country of the Benelux, three (!!!) in total ! Furthermore the time over which money is raised for the fight against child cancer is 18 months ( =1.5 years), with a long list of different events and approaches to raise money. I think this “longer” timeframe provides an opportunity to make a real difference.

Mont Blanc Expedition – The Just Beat It climax  

“The expedition to the top of the Mont Blanc, the highest mountain in western Europe, will be the final of over a year of activities to support the charity organizations in their fight against child cancer. In June 2011 several employees of Berner will accept the challenge to reach the top of the Mont Blanc.”

The final phase of the upcoming 1.5 years of supporting activities to raise money to fight child cancer will be an expedition to the top of the Mont Blanc. This is a huge challenge from a sports perspective, since climbing to 4,810 meters above sea-level will require a peakcondition and lot of perseverance to reach the top. I can imagine that the expedition to the Mont Blanc top can be tough and emotional, certainly if I try to imagine the climb of Raymond Ruwette, warehouse employee at Berner in Landgraaf, who’s 4-year old son is diagnosed with cancer.

In addition to the challenging part climbing a mountain like the Mont Blanc includes also some symbolism. Hopefully the Mont Blanc Expedition will also become the highest peak in the amount of money to support the charity organizations.

However the Mont Blanc Expedition is about one year away, and will take place on June 2011. Therefore keep an eye on the website of the Just Beat It Child Cancer Foundation, and follow the expedition step by step. From training till reaching the top !

Concluding thoughts

Professional cyclist Lance Amstrong, has become the personification of the fight against cancer and raised awarness about the impact of this set of disseases. On the website of the Livestrong Foundation you can read the following quote:

“We fight to improve the lives of people affected by cancer.”

The Just Beat It Foundation is fighting for the same good cause, and I will help them to make a difference to the best of my abilities. Not only by making a financial contribution, but also by inspiring and as many people as possible, and let them donate or participate actively in one of the events in the upcoming future.  

In contrast you need to think about the tremendous marketing budgets that are spent for the 2010 FIFA Worldcup in South Africa. Despite the fact that it will indirectly help the people in South Africa, it is just a small fraction of the marketing budgets that will reach the streets for personal development.

With a small donation to the Just Beat It Child Cancer Foundation you can really make a difference and change the lives of children diagnosed with cancer, their parents, friends and family! With your support for renewed research aimed at the genetic characteristics of child cancer you help the future generations as well !!

How you can help ?

The Just Beat It – Child Cancer Foundation is under ongoing construction, and unfortunately there isn’t a donate button available yet.

However with help of the following (banking) information it is possible to wiretransfer a donation to the according bankaccount in the Netherlands or Belgium:

Just Beat It – Child Cancer Foundation
P.O. Box 30034
NL-6370KA   Landgraaf
The Netherlands

KvK 14131823

Bankrelation in The Netherlands:  ABN-AMRO 45.83.70.460 , IBAN NL06ABNA0458370460

Bankrelation in Belgium:  KBC 731-0109079-26 , IBAN BE59731010907926

Join the “experts with a heart” and support their incredible journey to fight child cancer !!

About Berner

For those of you who don’t know Berner as a company, you can read the “Berner in a minute” section below from the Berner Holding website:

“Berner is one of the leading European direct sales companies in the small parts business, for professional use in the building and automobile trades as well as in industry. Around 8,000 qualified, specialized employees – over 5,000 of those in field sales – ensure our customers are looked after comprehensively and advised professionally, every day, in over 20 European countries.”

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A few days ago my attention was caught by a message communicated via the verified Google Twitter account, that introduces the role of Google as an engine of economic growth: 

“We’re not just a search engine, we’re an engine of economic growth. Our U.S. economic impact in 2009 was $54 billion“ 

Introduction

On the official Google Blog you can read a related article, posted by Claire Hughes Johnson, Vice President, Global Online Sales @ Google. 

“This week is National Small Business Week, and Ross will be with me on Capitol Hill in Washington today to share his story and help unveil something that means a tremendous amount to me: a new report detailing, for the first time ever, Google’s economic impact in all 50 states.” 

Let me be clear that the financial number of $54 billion is pretty impressive, but still I find the first time ever part remarkable. I’m pretty sure that the quantification on a state level is the first time ever in a public available document. Google is a public traded company, so you should be able to find estimates of the economic impact in the annual reports. 

But what does the financial number of $54 billion, represent? If you download the Google’s Economic Impact -- United States, 2009 -- report, you can read that: 

“In the pages that follow, we describe Google’s economic impact across the U.S. This impact is reflected by the number of advertisers and website publishers in every state, the non–profits we provide with free advertising, and the real–life stories of small businesses that have benefited from using Google.” (Google’s Economic Impact, 2009, p.3) 

What I really like about the report, is that start-ups, entrepreneurs and small business are included in this report. I recall the statement of Professor Pieper on the title slide of the opening speech presentation of the vision on the future symposium: “Value creation, nothing else matters.” 

This task of value creation is perfectly suited for the entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs, since entrepreneurship is an engine of the economy especially in the current hard economic times. Personally I think this is a highly interesting area to look into more detail.

Google Search, AdWords, AdSense and Google Grants

Google is well known for its search engine activities, but with regard to the economic impact let’s have a look at the business side where the money flows! In the the Google’s Economic Impact -- United States, 2009 -- report, you can read that: 

“Aside from being a well-known search engine, Google is also a successful advertising company. We make most of our revenue from the ads shown next to our search results, on our other websites and on the websites of our partners. Through these ad programs, we help many others make a living too. This booklet presents a conservative estimate of Google’s economic impact on businesses across the U.S. based on three core parts of our business: Google Search and AdWords, AdSense and Google Grants.” (Google’s Economic Impact, 2009, p.4) 

As you can see all three advertising related core parts of the Google business-side are closely tied to Google Search, which is the key resource (control point) in the Google Business Model. 

Google Adwords

The first advertising pillar the generates Google revenue is Google Adwords, that shows ads next to the search results based on the keywords that you have entered in the search field. In other words these are more or less “targeted” advertisements. 

Google AdSense

The second advertising pillar that contributes to Googles Economic Impact is Google AdSense. On the Google AdSense product page you can read the following description: 

“Google AdSense is a free program that enables website publishers of all sizes to display relevant Google ads and earn.” 

Almost everyone I know in online publishing is using Google AdSense to some extent, since Google AdSense can place advertisements in: (1) content, (2) mobile, (3) search, and (4) feeds. In fact it is a mutual relationship, since Google needs websites and online publishers to sell advertisements, while online publishers can use Google AdSense at no costs, and start earning money. 

The most interesting part of Google AdSense is the multiple channel characteristic, each with different financial business (model) parameters. 

Google Grants

The third advertising pillar from that contributes to the Google revenue is Google Grants. For me personally this was a pillar I don’t know that well, however if you look at the description on the Google Grants website, it is nothing more than Google AdWords for non-profit organizations: 

“Google Grants is a unique in-kind donation program awarding free AdWords advertising to select charitable organizations. We support organizations sharing our philosophy of community service to help the world in areas such as science and technology, education, global public health, the environment, youth advocacy, and the arts.” 

Calculations of Google US Economic Impact

In addition the financial number of $54 billion as the total of Google’s US Economic Impact in 2009, it is interesting to have a look at the underlying calculations. 

You can find a pretty detailed description of the calculations in the Google’s Economic Impact -- United States, 2009 -- report, as shown in the picture above. (Google’s Economic Impact, 2009, p.6-7) Furthermore you can find a video of Claire Hughes Johnson, Vice President, Global Online Sales @ Google and Google Chief Economist, Hal Varian, who provides additional background information on the underlying calculations: 

www.youtube.com/watch?v=hiGn8HPGrMM

When I first watched the video, I heard the word estimates a few times, which raised some skepticism. Of course I do understand that it is  hard to make the calculations with a mathematical accuracy on two digits behind the comma, that are 110% reflecting the real world situation. However in  the Google’s Economic Impact -- United States, 2009 -- report (p. 7) you can read: 

“This is a first attempt to estimate the economic impact of Google’s core search and advertising business. In search and advertising, we’ve derived a conservative estimate of the impact of our tools on businesses, website publishers and non–profits, but we’ve left out such estimates as the cost savings for consumers now able to find the information they need more easily than before. We also have not estimated the economic impact our employees provide, or that of other major products like Google Maps and YouTube. So while we’re reasonably confident in our estimates, consider them a lower bound on Google’s true economic impact.” 

As you can read in the “what is not included” section  (Google’s Economic Impact, 2009, p.7) there are some limitations and constraints. For example the is purely focussed on the core search and advertising businesses. YouTube is excluded despite it has become the second largest search engine online, is another example. 

“For more information about our methodology and to download the two cited studies, please visit: http://www.google.com/economicimpact/methodology.html“ 

Final thoughts and overall conclusion

At first I think the Google’s Economic Impact -- United States, 2009 -- report is a highly interesting one, especially since there are some real-life examples included from each of the 50 states. I think both this report and the total economic impact, represent quite an amount of entrepreneurship.The report furthermore shows some core aspects of the Google business (model) side, where the search technology is an enabler for the advertising revenue model. 

However there are certainly also constraints and limitations in this report about Google’s Economic Impact. You could also phrase it differently: the report has a clear focus on search and advertising, and it is a first attempt with recommendations for further research. It would be interesting to do some math and compare the numbers from the Google’s Economic Impact 2009 report, with the Google Annual Report 2009. 

Last year I was fortunate to visit Microsoft TechNet_Live, an event for IT  Professionals and Technical Decision Makers, that started with a keynote “Join the New Efficiency” from Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. If you have a look at section 1. and the included picture, you can see that Steve Ballmer is performing a similar exercise with the slide “IT More Critical Than Ever”: 

“Steve Ballmer describes the impact of the Microsoft Ecosystem in the Netherlands in terms of hard numbers:  for example jobs, revenues, new business opportunities and even as percentage of the  GDP.” 

It is not only Google, Microsoft or Apple who have a significant economic impact, but I think you can extend this reasoning and generalize that every (major) company has strategically build ecosystem that directly or indirectly includes other “surrounding” companies in the ecosystem. 

Google AdMob in Google’s Economic Impact 2010 report ?

Do you remember the article on the Official Google Blog, in which Google closed the acquisition of AdMob. Mobile Advertising has become a central part of the Google Advertising business with the AdMob acquisition. 

Combined with the growing global market-share of the open source Google Android mobile operating system, I’m really curious to find out what percentage of next year’s Google’s Economic Impact is generated from Mobile and Mobile advertising. …. and with these last thoughts I would like to finalize this article ! 

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A few weeks ago I published a Windows Phone 7 related interview with Charlie Kindel, Partner Group Program Manager for the Windows Phone Application Platform & Developer Experience @ DevDays 2010, Netherlands on the MobilityMinded website.

DevDays 2010 is a large two-day event for developers on the Microsoft platform(s), and in this article I will share some information about the Windows Phone 7 related sessions.             

Interview with Charlie Kindel, discussing Windows Phone 7 @ DevDays 2010

I was both fortunate and honored to have a 30 minute one-on-one interview with Charlie Kindel, Partner Group Program Manager for the Windows Phone Application Platform & Developer Experience, discussing various aspects of Windows Phone 7 (development).  

It was an unforgettable and awsome experience, not only to interview someone who is completely responsible for the developer side of the Windows Phone 7 ecosytem, but also to feel and experience the persistance, commitment and determination of  Charlie Kindel to make Windows Phone 7 a huge success.  

As you can read in the interview I was fortunate to learn from Charlie Kindel about the underlying concepts and building-blocks of the upcoming Windows Phone 7 operating system. Some specific usage- scenario’s were still under research- or development (updates, copy-paste), which combined with the excellent media training of Charlie Kindel, left me with some open questionmarks.  

However the close “private” demo got me really excited, especially Metro and the idea’s of content aggregation from different services or different locations on the phone. Also the productivity and efficiency improvements, like support for multiple Exchange accounts was great to see. Finally during one of the MIX 2010 keynotes I was simply blown away by the Xbox Live Game called The Harvest!  

Charlie Kindel was one of the keynote speakers during the second day of DevDays 2010 as well, and I would like to recommend the recording of the session “Windows Phone 7 Application Platform”, which is available via Channel 9:  

“Get a high-level overview of the new application platform and a complete picture of the developer story. Learn about the developer tools, the application frameworks, the support for Silverlight, and the support for XNA.”    

Windows Phone 7 Development -- Rob Miles

“Rob Miles is a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional and a lecturer in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Hull, United Kingdom.”     

Rob Miles is shown in his full glory in the picture above, while the description comes straight from his own website robmiles.com -- Rob Miles on the web. And why not? Rob Miles is an experienced lecturer, with an awesome style of teaching, that is relaxed and funny. However he keeps you focused and has a great and deep understanding about developing in Silverlight and XNA.    

You can find the complete video of the Windows Phone 7 Development session with Rob Miles on Channel 9, which again I can highly recommend. Matthijs Hoekstra, Developer Evangelist @ Microsoft Netherlands , who I meet at the DevDays 2010 as well, announced this session on Channel 9 as:      

“Watch this show with the very funny Rob Miles. He talks about the new Windows Phone 7 tools, shows how you can emulate your accelerometers for your WP7 with an XBox 360 controller and much more.”      

I will briefly discuss some of the demo’s that Rob Miles discusses and uses to explain the development concepts for Windows Phone 7.      

PatternMatch Silverlight Game   

The picture above shows the Silverlight based PatternMatch game, with a great summary at the bottom of the slide: “Silverlight makes “form based” games really easy to create.”  

Rob Miles first shows us the code and its simple structure for the PatternMatch Game, and illustrates the Game works like it is intended. In the second part of the demo is the PatternMatch used to illustrate the navigation on a Windows Phone 7 device (including the start menu- and the back buttons, defined by the hardware specs). 

Rob Miles finally briefly discusses the advantages and differences of Silverlight in comparison with the XNA design language.

StarLight XNA Game using XNA Accelerometer Emulation

Rob Miles grabs his Zune HD for this demonstration and elaborates a little on the background of why he wrote the StarLight game. In the Microsoft MSDN Library you can find even more extensive information in the article: StarLight: Writing a Space-Shooter Game for Smartphones.   

“This article describes how to generate moving star fields, animated sprites, and scripted movements for game objects. A space shooter game illustrates how to develop these features for Smartphones.”     

StarLight is ported to the Zune HD by Rob Miles to illustrate how to develop these concepts in XNA and even make use of the accellometer if you like. However the educational purpose of this game is brilliant, and despite it was Rob’s joke I really do hope we can push him to bring the StarLight game to Windows Marketplace for Mobile or the Zune Marketplace.  

Windows XNA “Game” Serving Gamepad accelerometer   

An Xbox 360 controller is used in this demo, where Rob Miles shows of a Windows Phone XNA game that reads the position of the controller in X, Y, Z coordinates. 

“Windows Phone programs can consume web services and read web pages. I connect the Windows Phone program to an XNA program that serves out X, Y and Z values read from the Gamepad.” 

Despite I don’t have a formal background in computer science, you can think of some cool scenario’s or even business models that build upon the concept to read webpages and web services. 

WP7 Phone XNA Multi-touch Piano  

The last demo that I would like to discuss is a multi touch piano, build in the XNA design language and running on a Zune HD. In other words you could play the piano on the go on your Zune HD, however the educational reasoning is to learn embedding multi-touch into your Windows Phone 7 application.          

You can find all the demo code samples on the website of Rob Miles in the article: “Devdays 2010 Windows Phone Game Development Talk“                  

www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFZ0z5Fm-Ng

Making the Social Connection -- Tony Krijnen, Daniel van Soest & Charlie Kindel

The video above was the introduction of the ”making the social connection keynote”, with the music of Fatboy Slim -- Right here right now song sounded impressive in the auditorium of the World Forum in the Hague. 

I have seen Tony Krijnen and Daniel van Soest before when they provided a similar interesting technical session during TechNet_Live Netherlands, when I attended the new efficiency keynote with Steve Ballmer. Below you can see a brief overview of the mindblowing demo’s of Tony and Daniel:    

• Facbook on XBox 360 in addition to Facebook in Browser and Facebook for Windows Phone;
• Microsoft Outlook Social Connector in Microsoft Office 2010,  that brings social networks like LinkedIn or Myspace into your Microsoft Outlook 2010 / 2007 environment;
• Building a game level for Xbox 360 in a plug-and-play way, without seeing a single line of code;
• Windows Phone 7 overview, and demotime with Charlie Kindel;

Jeff Wouters, Certified Microsoft Professional, has written an excellent story on his personal blog about the “making the social connection” keynote. So please check it out, and it was awesome to watch this session. Tony and Daniel keep up the good work, and I love the Windows Phone part !  

Miles, R.,  2010, Slides Giving Robots Life with the .NET Micro Framework, DevDays 2010, p.18       

Giving Robots Life with the .NET Micro Framework -- Rob Miles

Rob Miles introduced himself and Oscar briefly on his personal blog, and you certainly need to watch the video on Tweakers.net as well:  

“This time I’m taking my little robot Oscar and a bag full of sensors and bits and pieces. We are going to create some embedded devices on the fly and have some good old .NET Micro Framework fun and games.”     

Rob Miles first shares his knowledge and experience to answer the questions “What is the .NET Micro Framework?” and “What can you do with the .NET Micro Framework?”. Both the software- and the hardware parts of these questions are addressed.  

In summary:  The .NET Micro Framework is designed for embedded applications (build in C#), that gives you the ability to control a wide variety of hardware from simple embedded controllers to connected data terminals.  

The grand finale - Oscar, the Mini Robot rocks the stage !

The grandfinale of this session is controlling a robot with the .NET Microframework based on the system architecture shown in the screenshot above. The Windows Phone 7 device interacts with the Robot Control Webserver, which communicates with the wireless modem in Oscar, the Mini Robot.  

Please have a look at the Flickr Photostream, where you can see the hardware setup and the grand finale where Oscar bows to the public @ DevDays ! This was really an wesome session, and reminded me of the good old times when I played around with Lego Technic (which probably has been one of the first identifyers for my mechanical engineering education).   

Overall conclusion and wrap-up

My compliments to Microsoft Netherlands for the excellent organization of such a large-scale event like DevDays, which was comperable with the Microsoft TechNet_Live event for IT  Professionals and Technical Decision Makers. I think it is a great opportunity to learn, broad your horizon and expand your value network by getting in touch with colleague developers. 

Second I learned a lot from the sessions about the development side of Windows Phone 7, despite I don’t have a formal background in computer science. I was possible to get a deeper understanding of the possibilities of the Windows Phone 7 platform in a kind of high-level conceptual way. Please don’t ask me to write code, but I could grasp some of the underlying logic. Thank you Rob Miles for the brilliant way of lecturing ! 

If you ever plan to visit DevDays or TechNet_Live you definitely need to visit the keynote with Tony Krijnen en Daniel van Soest. They really bring excellent live demo’s and show you some very cool real scenario’s for a wide range of Microsoft products (from Xbox 360 to Windows Server 2008 R2) with a lot of passion and energy. The “guest-appearance” of Charlie Kindel and an extensive Windows Phone 7 demo made it even more special. 

It was very special to meet a lot of awesome, highly interesting people, and I had some excellent converations with the people from Microsoft Netherlands on topics like Innovation and (corporate) Entrepreneurship !!Finally the interview with Charlie Kindel, Partner Group Program Manager for the Windows Phone Application Platform & Developer Experience, was an unforgettable experience. A great many thanks for the time and awesome demo !   

I love Windows Phone !

About Microsoft Devdays 2010

DevDays 2010 is the largest Microsoft event in the Netherlands for software development and software architecture. Thousands of professionals yearly visit DevDays in order to get fully up-to speed about recent developments in their professional fields in two (Dev)days.        

With lots of interesting keynotes, sessions and high quality speakers from all over the world this is definitely an event you need to attend if you are interested in developing on Microsoft platforms.                          

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Tuesday I was invited for the local HTC Wildfire launch event on a special location, Circuit Park Zandvoort. Circuit Park Zandvoort is one of the few car-race tracks in the Netherlands with a rich race history, several race klasses and even Formula 1.

This is a special location to introduce a new product like the HTC Wildfire, right ?

Introduction HTC Wildfire by Mark Moons, Regional Manager HTC Benelux

Mark Moons, Regional Manager HTC Benelux, kicks off the first part of the HTC Wildfire launch event with a general introduction of  the current HTC position in the Benelux (= Belgium, Netherlands and Luxemburg) market.

HTC in the Benelux – Position and Trends

HTC grows in the Benelux market, (1) in terms of company, and (2) in terms of brand. HTC has a growing marketshare in the Netherlands, which is a trend I could follow over past events (for example Android Experience 2010 – Great Dutch event around the Android Ecosystem, and HTC HD2 locally announced by Mark Moons (HTC Benelux).

Mark Moons, Regional Manager HTC Benelux, raises a few highly interesting points about dynamics in the market.

1. The smartphone is becoming more mainstream, which means for the HTC brand a shift from technology brand to a more lifestyle position.
2. Furthermore there is a clear impact of social media on the use of smartphones, share your life always and everywhere. People who are engaging in social networks from a smartphone are more active/involved compared to traditional use behind the screen of a notebook.

To wrap-up this section HTC is the market leader on the Windows Mobile- and the Android operating system, and as an example don’t forget the huge success of the HTC Hero !

Meet the HTC Wildfire

In the picture above you can see that Mark Moons, Regional Manager HTC Benelux shows the HTC Wildfire in front of an aerial photograph of Circuit Park Zandvoort. On MobilityMinded I have published an article ”HTC Wildfire preview – Android & HTC Sense for the masses” that covers a preview of the HTC Wildfire hardware, and hopefully a thorough and in-depth review can be performed later.

In this section I will provide additional background information, underlying some of the key features of the HTC Wildfire. However I will start with the following summary of the HTC Wildfire on the HTC website:

“You have lots of friends in lots of different place. Why not bring them to you? See everyone’s Facebook, Twitter and Flickr updates, all in one feed. Share your favourite apps, because your mates will love them too. And get everything from texts, to photo’s organized by the friend that sent it – not to mention their latest Facebook status when they call. HTC Wildfire. Your friends have never been closer to you.”

Social networks take over the world

As mentioned before by Mark Moons, social networks are a catalyst for smartphones and their use.

• Facebook:  500 mln users;
• Twitter:  40 mln users;
• Flickr: 32 mln users;

The numbers from the presentation don’t need much of an explenation, social networks take over the world.

Android Market – An explosion of applications

The second set of statistics provided by Mark Moons, Regional Manager of HTC Benelux is about the Android Market.

• There are more than 54.000 applications in the Android Market and counting;
• Forecast:  150.000 applications in the Android Market by Q4 2010;
• Android users download -on average- 8.7 applications per month;
• 60% of the applications in the Android Market are free; 

While in my honest opinion the number off applications doesn’t tell anything about the quality of the applications, these statiscs do show that there is a clear momentum for developers to jump on the Android train. However it is interesting to see the explosive growth of an open source based mobile operating system like Android, compared to the closed mobile operating system of the Apple iPhone.

Google Maps Navigation will become available in the Netherlands this month, and combined with Android 2.1 and the option to share applications with your friends, brings this the best of Android to the HTC Wildfire. If you add 3.2″ capacitive touchscreen supporting multi-touch, the HTC Sense GUI and an excellent 5.0 megapixel camera to this, you can only conclude that the HTC Wildefire is ready to target the segment “between” the feature phone and the smartphone. Given the price point of E259,- (including VAT and excluding a subscription) HTC is clearly comitted to play a tough retail game !

Paul van Splunteren, Dutch GT4-teamowner Porsche Eindhoven provides tips and tricks about Circuit- and F1 racing

Paul van Splunteren, Dutch GT4-teamowner Porsche Eindhoven, delivers the second session of the HTC Wildfire launch event in which he shares his tips and tricks about racing on Circuit Park Zandvoort combined with his own car-racing-experience. Paul van Splunteren, will compete in the legendary 24 hours race of Le Mans upcoming June, and has a well established track record in car racing.

• Circuit Park Zandvoort, and how to race on a track like this;
• A well balanced curve technique on race circuit is extremely important;
• Physical health of drivers, heart rates and g-forces; 
• A thorough comparision between GT3 / GT4 and F1, differences in speed and power;
• Don’t forget to enjoy the race experience !!

In think Paul van Splunteren, shared quite some interesting facts about car-racing ! Being an active road cyclist I could grasp a feeling about the heart rates and physical health of the drivers, which is highly underestimated.

Do you also remember that HTC Benelux is the main sponosor of the Dutch GT4 championship and the sponsor of Team Bilderberg Porsche Eindhoven ?

“The partnership of HTC and Team Bilderberg Porsche Eindhoven is a strong combination of companies driven by values like innovation, design and speed. In addition to extensive relationshop marketing closely tied to the Porsche brand, HTC and Team Bilderberg Porsche Eindhoven work together on new mobile applications for car-race enthusiasts and Porsche drivers to get the most out of their HTC Smartphones!”

Picture used with permision of Chris Schotanus, Essay Producties

Porsche Carrera GT3 race-experience on Circuit Park Zandvoort

With all the tips, tricks and shared experience of Paul van Splunteren, Dutch GT4-teamowner Porsche Eindhoven, it was time for our own race experience on Circuit Park Zandvoort in a Porsche Carerra GT3 !

In the group photograph above I’m on the 6th position from the left, next to Mark Moons, Regional Manager of HTC Benelux (wearing a black blouse and holding the helmet in front of me). While at the picture you see the Team Bilderberg Porsche Eindhoven Porsche GT4 car, we were able to drive a Porsche Carrera GT3 on Circuit Park Zandvoort.

I must admit this was my first drive on a race track, so this was an exciting experience. Amazing to feel the power and acceleration of the Porsche Carrera GT3, and the stability riding curves is simply awesome. After a few laps you really start to feel the car and get a good flow in the curves, and you really enjoy the ride. On the straight line to the finish you get a speed of about 200 km/h, but inside the Porsche you simply don’t have the feeling driving that fast. Also the roll cage, race seats and helmet give a nice touch of a real race and get the adrenaline flowing !

I started with the first group of six cars, so I was able to see the other two groups race as well. The experience from the pit lane is different, mainly because it looks so much faster as a spectator. However it was extreme fun to see the others race, while I also enjoyed the other race cars on the track like a Corvette C6 and even a Radical S3, which was also on the track when I raced !! Impressive to hear the torque and mussle from these race cars.

Final thoughts and conclusion

I would like to thank HTC Benelux and Whizpr for the invitation to this special HTC Wildfire product launch on a very interesting location.

Everyone present at the launch event could really experience the results of “a strong combination of companies driven by values like innovation, design and speed“. The synergy and similar mindset of HTC and Team Bilderberg Porsche Eindhoven resulted in a great race experience on Circuit Park Zandvoort. Two great brands with a drive to be a leader come together on the same place: the race track !

Like I mentione before it was my first time riding on a circuit, and the driving behavior and power of the Porsche Carrera GT3 really made it an exciting experience. In order to get an additional idea of the day you might want to check out the set of pictures on my Flickr-account, or the imagebank of Chris Schotanus, Essay Producties.

Finally I do believe that with the HTC Wildfire, HTC has an interesting device  to play the retail-game to win and bring both HTC Sense and Android to the masses !

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Wednesday I was fortunate to be invited to the local Microsoft Office 2010 and SharePoint 2010 launch event in the Netherlands. As you can read in the press release “Microsoft Delivers the Future of Productivity With Office 2010 and SharePoint 2010“:

“Microsoft announced the worldwide availability of Microsoft Office 2010 and Microsoft SharePoint 2010, as well as Microsoft Visio 2010 and Microsoft Project 2010, for business customers worldwide.”

This has two implications: (1) the consumer launch and -availability will be later this year, and (2) Microsoft Visio 2010 and Microsoft Project 2010 are launched as well today, in addition to Microsoft Office 2010 and SharePoint 2010. Due to my background in business administration these are both applications I use often, and I’m happy to see that with the 2010 release of Microsoft Office, -SharePoint, -Visio and -Project, the ribbon is available troughout the Microsoft Office Suite.

Introducing Microsoft Office 2010 and SharePoint 2010 within “the smart working better living” framework

The local Microsoft Office 2010 + SharePoint 2010 launch event starts with a presentation that briefly introduces the new products within the boundaries of “smart working better living” framework, which consist of three components:

1. Technology;
2. People;
3. Physical (location);

With the announcement of Microsoft Office 2010 + SharePoint 2010 the technology component is refreshed within the framework (that however has underlying relations with the other components). If you have watched the keynote you will hear Wolfje van Dijk, Strategist of KPN /Getronics refer to this framework as well.

The introduction to Microsoft Office 2010 and SharePoint 2010 furthermore addresses the underlying reasoning  and background information on devlivering the best productivity suite available on the market. These items are also part of the keynote below, and you will furthermore see some the productivity improvements demo-ed !

Stephen Elop, President, Microsoft Business Division, launches Microsoft Office 2010 and SharePoint 2010 in New York

The second part of the launch-event was following live the Microsoft 2010 and SharePoint 2010 launch keynote with Stephen Elop, President, Microsoft Business Division. Very nice to see Wolfje van Dijk, Strategist of the Dutch company KPN/Getronics kicking of the Microsoft Office 2010 and SharePoint 2010 product launch by telling the story of KPN/Getronics.

Steve Ballmer explained the Microsoft Ecosystem, the vision of Microsoft and The New Efficiency, during the keynote at TechNet_Live in the Netherlands last year, when Microsoft Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2 and Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 were announced! In the introductary story of Wolfje van Dijk, Strategist of KPN / Getronics, you could hear that the new efficiency reasoning underlies their decision to roll out Microsoft Office 2010, Microsoft SharePoint 2010 and Microsoft Exchange Server 2010.

Microsoft Office 2010 – Numbers, Math & Financials

An interesting part of the Microsoft Office 2010 launch that matters from a business perspective is some of the math and financials. At first however I would like to look back at some impressive numbers of the Microsoft Office 2010 beta program:

“Microsoft’s Office 2010 and SharePoint 2010 beta programs were the largest ever, with three times the number of participants compared with the Office 2007 beta program. As a result, 8.6 million people are already using Office 2010 and related products. In addition, more than 1,000 partners are already building solutions for the 2010 set of products.”

As part of the Microsoft Office 2010 beta programs you could sent feedback to Microsoft about improvements you wanted to see in their software. With 8.6 milion people already using Microsoft Office 2010 products you have a nice pool to user crowdsourcing techniques to improve your products.

Lets continue with the math and financials, that show similar calculations on for example return on investment (=ROI) like in The New Efficiency approach during the launch of Windows 7. Remark that the case study in the Windows 7 scenario was also from Getronics. The Microsoft Office 2010 productivity and efficiency improvements have been research by Forrester Consulting:

“A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting, “The Total Economic Impact™ of Implementing Microsoft’s Integrated Office Productivity Platform,” May 2010,¹ evaluated the 2010 releases of Office, SharePoint, Exchange and Office Communications Server 2007 R2. The Forrester TEI model employs four fundamental elements including costs, benefits to the entire organization, flexibility and risk. Based on the customer interviews, Forrester constructed a TEI framework for a composite organization and found the ROI to be 301 percent with a payback period of 7.4 months after deployment. The study also found that the composite organization would see more than $13 million in savings over a three-year period and on average, a savings of more than two work weeks per year.”

The payback period of about 7 months is impressive in the current competitive landscape. I wonder however if this the optimum result or the average result of a few case studies. The latter approach would provide a more realistic result in my honest opinion. 

In this context I would furthermore like to recommend the Mary-Jo Foley article “Forrester: Google still a distant Office competitor” on the All About Microsoft ZDNet Blog, that provides some additional Forrester consulting insights and compares Google Docs and Microsoft Office.

Stories of Microsoft Partners implementing Microsoft Office 2010 and SharePoint 2010

Stephen Elop, President of Microsoft Business Division, discusses the stories of a few close partners from all over the world, who already implemented Microsoft Office 2010 and SharePoint 2010 in their enterprises.

• Wolfje van Dijk, Strategist, KPN / Getronics;
• Stephen Wilson, Chief Information Officer, NSW Department of Education & Training;
• David Glenn, Director Enterprise Operations, Del Monte Foods;
• Mark Mastrianni, Manager Global Technology Aquisition & Licensing, General Electric;

I think this is a great approach to share real life practical stories, as a significant part of a product launch keynote. Especially since Microsoft Office is one of the company’s bestselling products. Very cool to see a great role of a Dutch company KPN/Getronics in here.

Microsoft Office 2010 Demotime with Chris Caposella, Sr. Vice President, Microsoft Business Division

Chris Caposella, Sr. Vice President, Microsoft Business Division, provides an excellent 20 minute demo that shows some of the new features and capabilities of Microsoft Office 2010, across the three-screens-and-the-cloud.

A.  Microsoft Outlook 2010

• Preview pane of your calendar, when a meeting request is sent to you;
• Someone can leave a voicemail to your inbox in Microsoft Outlook 2010, based on the great updates for Windows Phone in Microsoft Exchange Server 2010;
• Conversation view, gives you the ability to manage conversations in-stead of e-mails. The clean-up feature lets you easily delete the non-unique e-mails in conversations, providing focus on the information that matters;
• Quicksteps, reply with a meeting gives the ability to set-up a meeting with all people in a conversation with one single click;
• Mailtips, provide really helpfull information about the receivers or distribution lists before you have sent an e-mail. Via the mailtips it is really easy to change these items;
• Outlook Social Connector for Microsoft Outlook 2010, transforms Outlook 2010 into a social hub and connects with networks like LinkedIn, Facebook, MySpace, or SharePoint inside the enterprise;

B.  Microsoft SharePoint 2010

• Sharepoint 2010, better work together via the social network inside the firewall of the enterprise, improved search scenarios on Sharepoint 2010, enhaced viewers inside the browser;
• SharePoint Workspace is the new name for Microsoft Groove and provides “offline use” of SharePoint data on your computer;

C.  Microsoft Excel 2010

• Sparklines in Excel 2010, give you the ability to create an in-cell-chart of specific data and avoides complex and hard to interpret graphs;
• Powerpivot in Excel 2010, facilitates easy sorting and filtering of huge datasets in mermory, that give instant results !
• Slicers in Excel 2010, create a visual dashboard of your powerpivot dataset and graph. You can easily user the slicers as filter, with instant updates of the powerpivot chart;

D.  Microsoft PowerPoint 2010

• Use of rich media like video in PowerPoint 2010 becomes really easy. Editting is really easy, without the need of third-party tools;
• Broadcast slideshows directly from within PowerPoint 2010, to easily share your slideshows online no matter if you use a browser, a pc or a Windows Phone with real-time updates across the three-screens-and-a-cloud;

E.  Microsoft Office 2010 Webapps

• Backstage view in Microsoft Office 2010, gives you enhanced capabilities for the file you are using and let’s you easily share, publish or print the specific file and even “purge” high definition video’s into a lower quality version that saves data;
• Microsoft Office 2010 Webapps provide enhanced Microsoft Office 2010 capabilities inside the browser with the same consistent interface and functions;

F.  Microsoft Office 2010 on Windows Phone

• Office Mobile 2010 applications for Windows Mobile 6.5 are directly available from Windows Marketplace for Mobile;
• Windows Phone 7 features the Office hub that facilitates notetaking via OneNote on your Windows Phone 7 device, creating Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents on your Windows Phone 7 device, or simply connect the Windows Phone 7 directly to the SharePoint 2010 environment;

While I used the Microsoft Office 2010 Professional Plus-, Microsoft Visio 2010- and Microsoft Project 2010 beta on my desktop and reviewed the Microsoft Office Mobile 2010 beta application for Windows Mobile 6.5 there are quite some features that I haven’t used yet. The demo-ed new features in Microsoft Excel 2010 like the Sparklines, Powerpivot and Slicers are simply brilliant improvements. I’m looking forward to the final version Microsoft Office 2010 Webapps as well, in addition to the recently announced Microsoft Docs for Facebook.

Concluding thoughts and wrap-up

It is not a big surprise that Microsoft Office is one of the best selling products in the Microsoft product portfolio. Microsoft has pushed a lot of new productivity and efficiency features into the new product design of  Microsoft Office 2010, SharePoint 2010, Microsoft Visio 2010 and Microsoft Project 2010. 

Furthermore you can see the awesome results of the three-screens-and-a-cloud-strategy that directs Microsoft, specifically taylored to the Microsoft Office productivity- and efficiency scenario’s.

• Stephen Elop, President, Microsoft Business Division: “The productivity solutions delivered in the 2010 release of the Microsoft Office and SharePoint, help our customers, end-users and IT professionals to save, grow and innovate !”
• Chris Caposella, Sr. Vice President, Microsoft Business Division: “We strive to build the best productivity experience on your pc, phone, browser and deliver the cloud on your terms!”

I think these quotes clearly show the commitment and strategic goals of the Microsoft Business Division. I personally like the consistent user interface across the three-screens, for example with the introduction of the ribbon in Microsoft Visio 2010 and Microsoft Project 2010.

Windows Phone 7, Windows Mobile 6.5 and … Symbian S60, MeeGo ?

As a Windows Phone enthusiast I’m really looking forward to experience the Microsoft Office 2010 Mobile applications in the Office Hub on Windows Phone 7. I have already updated my Windows Phones (HTC HD2 and HTC Snap) to the Microsoft Office Mobile 2010 applications, that really foster huge improvements over the past mobile versions.

Who of you remembers ”Microsoft and Nokia form Global Alliance for Mobile Productivity Solutions” last year. I’m really curious to ind out if some of the Microsoft Office 2010 goodness will find its way on Nokia devices as well (in addition to Windows Phone). Nokia still ships an impressive ammount of phones, so I personally would expect such a strategic move within the Microsoft Office 2010 context, however this is pure speculation from my side.

SharePoint – Opportunities for the Ecosystem

I haven’t taken a deep-dive into the technology part of SharePoint, however I can understand the great business opportunities for the Microsoft Ecosystem that are supported with some impressive financial numbers.

“The SharePoint integration services opportunity for Microsoft partners and developers today is $5.6 billion and is expected to grow to $6.7 billion in 2011, according to Microsoft data.”

It is really a no brainer to see how Microsoft invests in new developments that drive the IT ecosystem and indirectly become the driver of economic growth, like you could see Steve Ballmer back-up with hard numbers during the TechNet_Live keynote.

Finally I don’t visit the headquarters of Microsoft Netherlands that often, so it was great to be there, experience the corporate culture, and most important I have met some awesome, creative and committed employees from different parts of the Microsoft organization. I would like to thank Microsoft Netherlands for inviting me to the Microsoft Office 2010 and SharePoint 2010 launch event.

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Yesterday I silently launched the Remo Knops’ Brain Bits website, as a complement to the Remo Knops’ Personal Blog and MobilityMinded.

You might remember the  article “Mobile Technology related articles publiched @ MobilityMinded.com” last year, in which I explained my thoughts about this strategic decision. The result however was an increased and a significant focus on professional-related content to be published on this blog. It was a first step of strategic re-configuring and re-positioning.

In the same article I briefly addressed the increasing importance of social networks like -for example- Twitter and Facebook. Social networks are not only new distribution channels for marketing purposes, but have  become interesting,  highly valuable sources of rich information on the tip of your mouse button, as well. The information flows on social networks have super fast, real-time  characteristics, and it would be extremely time-consuming if you wanted to write 500+ word-articles about all the great news out there.

“A bit is the basic unit of information in computing and telecommunications; it is the amount of information that can be stored by a digital device or other physical system that can normally exist in only two distinct states. There are several units of information which are defined as multiples of bits, such as byte, kilobit or  megabyte, etc. Computers usually manipulate bits in groups of a fixed size. [...] ”

Remo Knops’ Brain Bits a complement to Remo Knops’ Personal Blog

Remo Knops’ Brain Bits will cover a wider spectrum of these real-time interesting news bits from various types, that trigger my brain and may valuable for other readers.

While I still will stay deeply committed to write extensive and in-depth articles on this blog as well as on MobilityMinded, I will be able to share interesting information in a shorter and more time-friendly format complementary to this blog.

I really hope you will find some value in the near-future-shared content on Remo Knops’ Brain Bits, and it would be nice if you check back on this website for more extensive and in-depth articles in the context of my professional innovation and entrepreneurship field. You could also connect via one or more social networks like Twitter or Facebook.

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