I have just finished making the rounds of the various outlets selling the iPhone today in Melbourne and I have to say I am a little surprised at the numbers in the lines - not as large as I would have predicted. At 6:45am Telstra was certainly leading the way over Optus with it's queue with a very poor showing from Vodaphone in last place. Actually Vodaphone at one point had more sales/helpers/DJ's than customers and in talking to a couple of the store reps they indicatd that they had swatted up last night on the iPhone - what it can do, but when talking to real customers found that the majority already had a very good idea of what was possible.
This got me thinking - if you had a tool/device that was to be released on a new market (imported iPhones don't count) and you wanted to make the most of store branding and service offering, would it not have been a good idea to actually get students involved. Just think about it as a class activity students could have come up with a plan and strategy to walk the queue's and talk about the phone, its features, the telecommunication providers features and offerings and even have a couple of the devices to let people play with while waiting in line. Students would also have been able to show some of the cool web apps or sites that you could acess with the phone - onsell more branding or even highlighted tips and trick or online content suited to the device.
What a great activity that could have been - I did not see any of the three resellers doing this when I was watching the queue's - sure Vodaphone provided nibbles coffee and a DJ, but there were opportubities to be had that were missed.
Something for the next product launch - I wonder if any students/teachers were involved in something like this around the world - let me know if you were.
If you were in the queue drop me a line and tell me about the anticipation and experience.
The last couple of days have been a blur for a first timer at NECC. I have been able to record an amazing amount of audio, video and links but just not have had the time to edit and cut them together. You could say that I have been enjoying the social side of things here, and let me tel you the social side of things is something else, really -more on that at another time when I have recovered.
The buzz and ability to talk too and mix with like minded people can be overpowering.
Today I attended to two great session - I will put details and information about these up as soon as I can. Just taking it all in at 1:00am in the morning in the hotel lobby whilst accessing the free internet. This has been an amazing ride.
Goodnight
Following on from my previous two posts on this topic (They’re playing it too safe & Making Mistakes Pt II) I came across the following video on Jenny Luca's blog Lucacept and I just had to add it here in regards to my whole issue around failure, risk and making mistakes. Whilst it uses a lot of familiar US stories it does help to reinforce the point that failure and mistakes are part of the journey - we need to make an Australian version?
Following up on previous posts about mistakes I had to include the following clip from Edward De Bono on the lack of a term for things which we plan to do that just do not work out as intended.
Just recently I started to add a few features to my blog site - have had trouble finding time to do so. Anyway one addition was a FeedJit Traffic Map - I just wanted to say a big HELLO to the person in Mauritius that visited my site. I hope it was of interest and helpful. If you come back again please drop me a comment.
I write this blog with a lot of personal experience (and it is a follow up to a previous post on Slow moving systems), I was once in a senior position within an Education Department IT Services unit and saw first hand the issues that are faced. It is interesting as a teacher that I was able to get into such a position at a relatively young age without having to go through the bureaucratic condition that befall many in these departments. I do have to say that this was my undoing - although I was good at the job I had to do, I had to go outside the prescribed government structures to get things done in a timely and efficiency manner (for me). This did not mean I committed anything criminal, I was just very strategic and worked the system to its fullest, which is another story.
From my experiences and observations the following became evident - this comes from work in and with a number of Australian government educational systems:
The following link to an article by Martin Levins is really what got me going on this subject and just highlights the idiocy of those that manage and work in some of our Educational IT Service Departments.
Come on guys - start getting with the program and stop being a barrier for innovative students and teachers to jump over.
I had to post this clip simply for the great ideas as well as for the environmentally friendly ideas - I liked the camera tripod.
The following site was posted up on Diigo a social bookmarking tool I have been using lately, well using is really the wrong term I am actually making the move from del.ico.us to Diigo as it is a far more collaborative and enhanced tool. Anyway I will do a wrap of Diigo later.
The following site was posted online by my Diigo friend Isabelle Jones from the UK. You have to visit this site for the simplicity of such a basic activity it offers in an online way (I watch my children do this in real life just the other day) - this activity would be great on IWB's of LST's.
Enough talk - go pop here...
Update - this is also available as a down loadable widget here...
Came across another April Fools site from the masters at "Google". The gDay MATE system allows for predictive searching into the future - check out the site here.
Another site to check out for April Fools day sites is - Top 10 Places to Get Fooled on April 1st.
