Nomad Planner

IS Parade – Twitter Parade Generator by KDDI

IS Parade is a widget that allows twitter users to create a virtual parade of their followers. It’s a fun tool that KDDI, Japan’s second largest mobile carrier, launched to promote the new Sharp’s IS series android phones in Japan earlier this year.

Why do I think it’s a good idea?

  IS Parade taps into data visualization to create something fun and interesting. It’s hardly a new idea. Data visualization has caught on over recent years as a ‘thing’ to do to make something seemingly dull (like a lot of data) interesting. The challenge I’ve found with a lot of data visualization initiatives seems to be the lack of real utility or a hook, which makes it engaging and interesting beyond pure aesthetics.

  The utility bit is tough. I don’t think IS Parade offers any real utility to its users, but what it does well is realizing one important truth about human being – we are egoistic by nature (some of us more than others).

  They’ve found the hook.  

  The people behind IS Parade know that ‘followers’ on Twitter is something any person who tweets cares about. We all want to grow the number of our followers. We all want to share. We all want to be heard. We are egoistic.

  In a fun way, IS Parade is a parade of one’s own followers. The hook is in that fact that we can watch our followers on a parade virtually.

  Again, it’s not a new idea. It doesn’t offer real utility to the target audience, but it found a good way to use data to generate interests and visualize it in a fun way.

The Merlion Hotel

  The Merlion Hotel was an ad hoc hotel that was set up as a piece of installation art for the 2011 Singapore Biennale earlier this year. Beyond just being an art piece, it was a fully operational hotel for 32 days.

  I think it’s a great idea for two reasons:

  1)     A clever combination

  The Merlion hotel is a perfect blend of art and tourism, which is the direction that Singapore has recently been trying to dial up to make this tourism destination even more attractive.

  It went beyond art. The fact that it became a fully operational hotel for 32 days allowed the public to interact with the Merlion and gained a totally new experience.

  It gave ‘art’ a meaning and elevated it to something tangible that people could relate with.

  2)     Daring move

  It’s one of those ideas that I thought to myself, “Why didn’t I think of that?”

  The truth is I could have. But I would never thought that such an idea could be possible in Singapore.

  In a country that is known for rules and regulations, you would think that the government would be so stringent and overly protective of its national icon.

  Who would expect the government to allow an artist to do anything to the country’s icon, much less setting up a hotel?

  It was a good idea because someone actually made their ‘good idea’ happen against all odds.

  As expected, the Merlion Hotel gained a lot of traction from the art scene, but more importantly from the public. The idea will no doubt live on even though they’ve dismantled the hotel. As people refer to the Merlion, some one will go, “Did you know that they made it into a hotel?”

haha yes - kind of....modern day nomad. Look at my footprints!

It's a trick question. 

You're not supposed to just choose one.

Depending on the nature of the tasks...some, you'd be better off working alone (I can list a couple of reasons why this is a good thing - efficiency, control, ability to reflect, etc.)

Having said that, we are unknowingly trained by the corporate world to say that 'we're a team player'. It's something people expect you to say. It's an ideal answer. 

Underneath it all though, my intuition tells me to stick to my honesty whenever I get asked that question. 

I like to work alone. 

But somehow the statement above is hardly an ideal response to the question. In the professional context, there's a perceived implication that 'you don't like working in a team, if you were to like working alone'. 

Unfair.

I like to work alone. And that's not to say that I am not a team player.

I am a true believer that problems is not solved by one person magically coming up with a solution. We are a 'herd' species. We stick together to solve problems. Our ancestors endured the hardship of humankind together long before you and I came into this messy world - not alone. Sure enough there's a leader of the pack, but he or she is just as clueless as you and I are (albeit he or she might have more experiences and traits that land them there as a leader of the pack).

But the corporate culture have made us believe that 'teamwork' is the way to harmoniously work with others and achieved a desired common goal. 

In theory, it sounds great. In reality, could this notion backfire at us when one or two in your team does all the heavy lifting and the rest enjoy the glory of the team's success?

My point is.....when we formulate a response/point of view is our head, we are already working alone. We work alone to reconcile the logic inside our minds before we even dare to put it across to the 'team' that we work with. 

Great minds in this world would rather work alone. They've got talent, the gut, and a passion. Sure they might be influenced or helped by others along the way. But at the end of the day...it's their tenacity and true belief in themselves (not the team) that move them from good to great.

Back to the question in the title of this post. Don't get me wrong. There's a way out. Say both, but elaborate on why you think so. 

It's a trick question after all. If the person who asks you that is smart enough, they will appreciate the honesty (hopefully!).

The day SMS became free is the birth of constant interruption from your push notifications and the death of calling-someone-and-saying-everything-one-needs-to-say-in-one-go. 

Do you remember the days when SMS cost 30 cents and you get about 160 characters depending on the network you're with and the model of phone you SMS from?

Glory day for people like me, I tell you.

Those were the days when we learned to be concise with how we communicate with one another. People actually thought about what they wanted to say before hitting the 'send' button. 

Case in point: Back then, when you want to have dinner with your friend - You'd most likely suggest a date, time, and place in mind...if your friend can't make it, he would either call to arrange as a proper response. Nowadays, a simple dinner arrangement could extend to at least 10-15 SMS correspondence before the plan is made. Many more questions are inserted in between: 

A: Hey Sam, what are you up to after work?

B: Not sure yet, why?

A: Should we have dinner?

B: Yes, sure.

A: What do you have in mind?

B: How about Italian?

A: Sure, Where?

B: Why don't we meet at the Plaza and pick one from there?

A: Sure, what time should we meet?

B: 7pm?

A: Sure. See you there. 

B: OK. 

B (Again): See you there. 

I don't know about you, but I come across these situations numerous times ever since SMS became free (Via 3rd party apps like Whatsapp, Free IMs, Blackberry Pin Message)

It's not that we are no longer able to be succinct. We simply adopt what we'd say to a person in real time (if we were to call someone) in a text format.  

Two things happened with this joyous democratization of SMS: 

1) Adopting 'online chat' behavior on mobile - way back when we had the time to sit in front of our PC and talk to our friends - near or far away in other cities/countries - both parties would have to be online to chat with one another. It was real time. We could afford to chat in short sentences and expecting the other side to respond within a matter of seconds.

Time has changed, but behavior hasn't. 

With the rapid progress of the internet and proliferation of handheld machines that enable us to be connected anywhere and anytime, we simply transfer the same behavior over. Instead of 'chatting' in real time on your PC, we can now do it on our mobile. 

2) Type more, talk less - Without a doubt, we've become hooked to mobile phone in recent years. But one thing I've wondered in the context of this blog is whether people actually prefer to type a message rather than calling on some occasions that calling would have been much faster and more efficient. Example below:

B: Hey, I'm here.

A: Wait for two minutes. I'll be there.

B: Ok.

A: I can't find the way. I don't know where I am.

B: Oh ok. 

B: What do you see near you? Maybe I can help.

A: I see a McDonald's.

B: Hmmm.

B: I think you need to turn left and walk straight.

A: OK.

The conversation could go on. Think about it, it only takes no more than 30 seconds to have this conversation via voice call. 

It's a simple behavior that gets transferred over from PC to Mobile, but it has implication on us all. Imagine constantly getting push notifications on every single one of these messages from the example. 

Say good bye to your focus. 

It is possible that everything I've written on this post is a complete conjecture. People who grew up 'talking' on the phone might, in fact, still prefer having their conversation that way. The worrying gen is those who grew up 'chatting' online as part of their leisure activities. I'm not condemning them in anyway. Purely an observation. 

Until more and more of us become like this:

Come on people. Talk more. We miss your voice. 

This post is nothing but an introduction to some, but it's a post that defines what this blog is about (to me). 

First few words usually set the tone of a conversation, a debate, or even a negotiation. My first few words here will set the tone of this blog for year to come (I hope). 

Writing this is very much like crafting a brand idea - what the brand stands for, what it is set out to do, what it should mean to people. 

Or is it a manifesto?

What would be the positioning statement for my blog if it was a product that I am attempting to sell to you? (One might ask)

Nomad planner (as I envision it) is a platform where I want to share my thoughts, muses, and things I learn along the way as I busily prance around the globe and talk to people from all walks of life. 

Nomad planner is a term used to describe a planner like me who grew up in one place but got moulded, shaped, influenced, and messed up in many interesting places around the world. 

The end result of all this is a point of view that picks the best of all worlds and puts it across to you. 

I believe there are many like me and I sure hope they'll join me here one day to share their frustration, angst, rants, or simply their enthusiasm for life and a love of learning. 

Again, this post is nothing but a preface for many more insightful observations about the world we live in, great ideas that should be known to mankind, and point of views that are worthy of attention.  

Best,