Tom Purves – Product Management, Fintech & AI

A found poem, of sorts, in my feed reader this morning, courtesy of upcoming.org/toronto

“Corporate Social Responsibility and the ICT Sector — Do you know how CSR can impact your business value? Canadian Business for Social Responsibility (CBSR), the Information Technology Association of Canada (ITAC), Electronics Product Stewardship Canada (EPSC) and Imagine Canada are hosting an introductory event on CSR issues and the ICT sector. Some of the issues to be covered include: ? Introduction to CSR and the CSR issues facing the ICT sector (CBSR) ? Addressing the Digital Divide ? The significance of Accessibility issues to the ICT Sector ? Doing Business with Charities & Non-profits ? CSR and Employees- how CSR is impacting employee attraction and retention ? Environmental Stewardship ?”

So, you excited for this one? When you you woke up this morning were you just thinking in the very words “hey, damnit how can we really get-up in there with those (CBSR) CSR issues facing our ICT sector today?”

While it’s true us geeks are sometimes guilty of talking in our own echochambers and in our own cryptic jargonfile but nonetheless, it’s this kind of policy speak when used in the wrong context that just kills me. I had the same complaint with the title of the ICT toronto strategy unveiled last month. I think it’s important that industry, stakeholders and policy-makers engage each other as much as possible yet this self-obsessive and exclusatory argot of acronyms is not helping. This is not good marketing. I’m just asking to please consider your audience.

What business owner do you know that speaks this way?

Social responsibility is an important topic to every citizen, and yet marketed thus, who’s going to show up but those few usual suspects of policy and association wonks who can actually parse the invitation?

At the risk of going to far, can I just add one last acronym: WTF?

okay, whew, sorry I am done ranting for the day…

Thought provoking post from Fran today who had the opportunity to attend two simultaneous conferences in copenhagen last week. One was Reboot a technology, life, business and social software and the other a conference on demographics and aeging. As she says:

It was interesting to go back and forth between a conference concerned with the impact of an ageing population and made up almost entirely of senior/elderly/ageing (take your pick, all the words are kind of uninspired) people, and to another with young hip thangs with faces humming with the glow of their laptop extended selves. There was clearly a gap between both dimensions, and it made me wonder whether there might be a way to bridge the two universes.

and later

I am probably missing some elements, but there is a bit of irony that both conferences were celebrating their 8th happening but with very different audiences in mind. Somewhere between the two is a revolution or real Web 2.0 waiting to happen…

With an ageing population being one of the key demographic trends that will be reshaping the economy in the coming decades, one has to wonder, are we technologists speaking the right language? (and I mean that both figuratively and literally)

• Every year the populations of western countries is getting older. And guess which is the demographic that holds most of the wealth. And while we technophiles and barcampers get so easily exited over each new fangled thing, remember this is the demographic typically slowest to adopt all things new, whether they be fangled or otherwise.
• I’ve heard said [though I haven’t factchecked] that women account for 85% of consumer spending yet often represent 25% or less working in roles of product development (not to mention compsci and engineering)
• Lastly, as Timothy Li pointed out the other day, the number #1 blog on technorati is now Chinese. And, as of 2004, china has the worlds highest broadband penetration. Fastest growing languages on the internet 2000-2005? Russian, Portuguese, Chinese, Spanish and French.

If you’re a technologist, a designer or a web2.0 entrepreneur, I’d ask yourself these questions?

1. is your primary market young, tech-savvy, English-speaking and male?
2. are you missing the boat?

link to fran’s post

update: more coverage of reboot and the global aeging conference on fran’s global village blog here

Home again safe, after another glorious sailing adventure to, as expected, a mountain of e-mails, replying to which made all the more difficult by the stubborn swaying of the computer screen and nothing else for that matter. Hopefully though, I will soon find my land legs again and get caught up. but I really shouldn’t complain…

In other news, I got back to be somewhat shocked to hear of David Crow’s unexpected misfortunes. Glad to hear you are recovering, I’m sure all of us barcampers are pulling for you.