A quick recap

I know you're probably subscribed to my blog, twitter feed, or are indeed already on Facebook. If you are one of these people, then congratulations, you're on the right path to Heaven 2.0.
Paul Walsh, Jul '07

I hope you're enjoying the LDNnudetech unofficial preview calendar as much as me! It's been a hoot so far and whilst I know many of you won't give your public support, I've been delighted by the overwhelming support via private messages I've received. So here's a quick recap of the first four shots
George

January

Featuring the calendar creator (well he stole the idea off Robert Loch, much like the moonwalk idea which he stole from Rob Manuel, but we'll call him the creator for the sake of argument) Milo Yianapodopodpolousopodopus and the star of the tech world: multi-business, super-entrepreneur Paul Walsh (remind me, what businesses did he set up again?)

February

This picture is just wrong. Totally wrong. How they got the expresions right for this shot is amazing. So well done to legal expert and has-been Sam Sethi and our calendar regular Paul Walsh for their time in this shot.


March

This was a surprise hit amongst my readers. Thanks again to Paul Walsh for having the dignity to don a baby outfit and look like a twat. I owe you one mate. This features the twiterati couple Andy Mcloughlin and James Whatley who are, of course, very much in love. But it wasn't always like that. Rumour has it that Andy took a punch from James one night in Soho for talking to ace reporter Vikki Chowney. You bastard Andy!


April

Thanks again to Paul Walsh for dressing as a girl. There's no greater sport in the ivy league of business people. Paul looks on rather jealously at big ole failed entrepreneur Robert Loch and Meed-ya girl Jamie Klingon (looking pretty fit).



....So 4 months down and 9 to go. I can't thank those who have volunteered so far enough for your time. Who's left to pose? Let's just say no one is safe.

Leaving the circus

"Goodbye you needy, distracting pain in the arse; my mother was right about you"
Paul Carr

What is it that makes Ecademy so hideously unattractive, so akin to a happy clappy cult? Members I've come across are a mix of no hopers straight out of the Stepford Wives and evangelists offering to give you the confidence you didn't know you didn’t have.

Ok, I'm a bit angry with them so may come across a bit strong but I'm trying to be unbiased. Ecademy can't be all that bad? Feedback from members is excellent. In fact you never see a bad comment. Take a look at this one:

"I am an avid Ecademist. It is a network which works - has dynamism and serves its members. The founders are untiring in keeping a personal relationship with the members. By comparison - Linked-in, Xing etc are cold and impersonal."

This was posted underneath one of the best TechCrunch UK articles ever which I'll come back to in a moment.

It seems you are either an Ecademy type or you’re not. I'm happy to say I'm not. Like thousands of others I naively joined when I started a business many years ago and am still on their database counting towards their 1.9 million members. As co-founder (Billy Graham understudy) Thomas Power has confirmed, only 190,000 active members log on a month so it's hard to estimate how many of those 1.9 million have lapsed but it has to be a good few hundred thousand. Since I joined I have been regularly contacted by the type of people I define as freaks (a true Ecademist would be a little more complimentary). My first ever read:

"If you want any introductions to other Ecademy members then please let me know. I have about 150 people in my online network covering most skills, and I am quite good at finding 'horses for courses'. My company works with growing businesses with a specialisation in fresh thinking and creating new ideas that will aid growth. If you want to have a chat sometime and bounce some ideas around then please do give me a call.

Good luck
Simon Read
www.simonread.com"

150 people - whoopeedoo! He was so good at 'horses for courses' that his website no-longer goes to a site about him, it's now 'parked' by acquirethisname.com and temporarily redirects to an online poker site. Of course I could be wrong. Maybe Mr Read decided that dot coms were so 2007 and went for a dot name instead. I can't really be bothered to check. Ok, bit of bad luck with that one, perhaps if I'd responded to him all those years ago things could have been different for simonread.com. My next message read:

"Hello. I notice that you are new to Ecademy. I'd like to say hello and welcome. It’s a very friednly (sic) place here...Wishing you well,

A.
www.sparkleinbusiness.co.uk"

Leave me alone! I hate all this American false friendliness! Poor A. It seems she's no longer 'sparkling in business' either. But I bet she's still counted in the 1.9 million members.

OK forget the messages, you get the gist. On to compatibility. Finding other 'members like me'. A great idea for a feature - if it works. So, let's see who I'm like. One click later and there are pages of people like me. Just like me. Magic!

Not giving away any names, here’s who I match with: someone who offers profile makeovers; someone working for the University of Life; An intuitive leader from Intuitive Leadership LLP; a WiseTiger; two life coaches; and this business guru:

"If you have ever wanted to speak in public without fear and in a way that makes others want to listen -- I can help. If you have even wanted someone to help you to write better speeches, presentations, promotional material and sales letters, talk to me. If you have ever wanted someone to deliver your presentations for you, write your direct mail, brochures, speeches, websites -- I'm your man."

So, do I need to give you my feelings on the subject or are they clear enough. And I haven't even got on to their events yet, or their weirdo, loves the sound of his own voice, 70's throwback Mike Southern - The Beermat Entrepreneur. Another time.

Yesterday I read Penny (co-founder and wifelet of Thomas) Power's latest blog. I was very nearly ill. The tone, the smugness, she really has no idea how she sounds which is totally clear from reading more of her blogs all in the same tone.

Please read it here

There's no matter of fact in this article at all. Just a bunch of sentences that sound nice and make Penny sound even nicer. "In ten years we have never argued, never disagreed on the strategy" / "I call myself the Heart of Ecademy, I am the 'Intention', Thomas is the 'Brain' of Ecademy, the thought leader and the head of the community; Glenn is our 'Nervous System', he keeps us all working, joins us up, he is our CEO, he is the 'Tools" / "Everyday, when I am on the computer, answering messages, when I am training, speaking or meeting members, I have only them in my thoughts "what can we do to help your business get stronger", that is why I get up in the morning. That is why I love Ecademy."

So, a rare occurrence for me, I decided to post a comment.

"That has to be the most sycophantic, smug, self-appreciating article I have ever read. Do you look at yourself in the mirror every morning and tell yourself how great you are"

Within minutes my account was suspended. So I wrote to Thomas and told him how I resent the policing system they have which only keeps the nice articles showing. He did respond but not with any real explanation.

I want to refer you back to Mike Butcher's piece back in February. It was only a short piece just about the company being ten years old. You can read it here. Nothing special except for Thomas Power's lack of clarity on their numbers. It was the comments that followed that really made this incredible reading.

In summary, after the article the first few comments were pretty genuine. Then suddenly a flurry of comments appeared that were not just pro Ecademy but real loyalist kind of stuff. Mike Butcher then suggested that these were being prompted by the Power's. It then transpired that Thomas had, in fact, put a link to the article on his blog as well as on Twitter. Thomas and Penny also both put their defensive comments in. It didn't stop there. One of the Power's business partners Roger Hamilton was then cited in a few subsequent postings. At the time he was being investigated on a number of claims that he was extracting money from small businesses by dubious means. One of the actual claimants also posted a comment. Mike ultimately had to close the piece. This one sneaked in, and as it was on TechCrunch, it was not hidden like mine:

"I was a member of Ecademy but got fed up with the Law of Attraction rubbish. Apparently people can state, for instance, that the Jews brought the Holocaust upon themselves, or that cancer sufferers attracted the disease to themselves and still remain as members of Ecademy. But don’t mention Roger Hamilton, the well known scam artist, you will be thrown out immediately."

We can speculate quite a lot from this. 1) Can the Power's take constructive criticism? - I guess we'll see soon enough 2) Do they over manipulate their own images to come off as squeaky clean friends of the small business - in a kind of Scientologist style? 3) Are there fascist undertones within their leadership? I'm not suggesting there are, just speculating, and 4) Are they involved in any of the alleged scams that their business partner Roger Hamilton was?

Who can say? But I can tell you this. I don't want any part of their organisation in my life. They have created a community that is a breed of its own and I'm very proud to say I'm not an Ecademist.

Goodbye Ecademy

The Week

"Obviously my intention is to expose you. Enjoying your work though"
Robert Loch

I write from Hyde Park where, having now posted my work for today, I can relax after a very amusing week.

A few interesting tech things happened.

• Yahoo is taking its DRM servers off line. So anyone with Yahoo music is basically stuffed. Hard luck suckas!


• Twitter got hacked (allegedly). Anyone who was logged on at the time lost their followers. It's likely you also contracted a few viruses - run your anti-virus!


• Actually a few million sites got hacked, as did a few Oyster cards!


• Savvy Chavvy won a Catalyst award. Not sure how the recipient collected the award with a chicken drumstick in one hand and a glass of whiskey in the other.


• A businessman managed to sue his old mate for putting up a fake Facebook profile. Boy could I be in trouble!


• ...And finally Google pulled out of the Digg acquisition.

The latter deservingly wins today's haiku dedication as follows:

Digg's big deal goes west
No Google acquisition
Boardroom tears for sure

I've recently been busy messing around with the London web community and have lots more messing planned. Very much enjoyed a game of Botticelli over email with Detective Inspector Loch last night. I was even tempted to include him in my conspiracy but then I might as have well given him a loudspeaker with my name blaring out of it.

Enough for now and remember George is watching you. Spread the word!

Back to my sunbathing.

Street View fun

"If we had 3 million exhibitionists and only one voyeur, nobody could make any money"
Albert Brooks


As lightning always strikes twice, so, it seems, does the Google Street View Car. Thankfully, partly due to the many European privacy organisations along with the Daily Mail, my face is likely to be blurred out. Phew!

Both sightings were in the West End of London last week and each time the car was blasting out loud music, unintentionally (or perhaps not), confusing some people to its actual purpose. Even my first thoughts were that it was some kind of roadshow or festival promotion, the tall boxes sticking out the roof being speakers rather than cameras.

It didn't take long to realise my mistake after noticing the very clear branding on the car, most likely a legal necessity. And, on further research I notice that this last week shows the biggest increase in sightings of the car in the UK including:

girlonetrack: Just bombed it down my road in sandals to catch up with the Google camera car so I could take a snap of it. I failed.

ajhicks: Just went past a google streetview camera car in shoreditch.wonder how long it'l be before its available to use

...and my favourite

danux: thinks if the google car came to Tyseley it would probably get its camera nicked

What is Street View? It's a new service from Google Maps that gives you a 360 degree view of any where the camera has been: you can find a street and walk down it. I tried to have a bit of fun with it and walk the wrong way up some freeways - wasn't actually much fun in the end. So I tried to cross the freeway and walk into a lake. Unfortunately, this wasn't possible as you can only follow the exact line the camera car took. Darn! But theoretically this could follow. If Google can use similar technology to Microsoft's Photosynth then anything could be possible. Anyway back to the sightings.

It appears the UK and Germany had the most recent sightings suggesting that, privacy issues permitting, London will have its very own Street View very soon. Although it could just be that we had more hours of sunshine than normal this week, essential for the cameras to work at their optimum.

Americans have been having lots of fun with the service. People flashing at the camera, and the spotting of incidents including various crimes, accidents, nose pickings and just plain weird moments. A number of websites have emerged capturing some of the better voyeuristic moments - Street View Fun.com and Google Street View Sightings.

But it's not all been fun. Some people caught on camera have not been too pleased. One disgruntled couple believe that their house price has gone down as a result and are attempting to sue Google for $22,000. This amount also includes costs for mental suffering. Last month, the Pentagon banned Google from making close-up images of military bases after it was revealed that pictures of the Fort Sam Houston army base in Texas included access control points and other potentially risky details.

The images are made from 16 static shots combined to give the 360 degree view and the guys behind the technology have not ruled out the possibility of live streaming in the future.

Keep tweeting those sightings and let’s see if we British can have more fun with them than our American counterparts.

Aren't we a sad bunch!

Moo loves you!

"You can go a long way with a smile. You can go a lot farther with a smile and a gun"
Al Capone


My sources tell me it was an interesting day and night yesterday in the London web community with the much hyped moo party and the afternoon Internet Mixer.

It all began at the roof garden of Coq D'Argent in the city. But as the organisers had 'coq-ed' up the arrangements with the venue, it was moved to the East Room in Shoreditch. Nevertheless, most people found their way to the private Tabernacle Street club. and had plenty to drink on the hottest day of the year so far.

As usual Paul Birch was dressed for the occasion. Included amongst the bunch were the hosts Robert Loch and Paul Carr (surprisingly sober), and special guest star Michelle Dewberry. From the East Room it was a short journey to Brick Lane and the moo.com party.

What can I say about the evening that you can't say better? So here's a transcript of various tweets through the night.


18:00 clashcityrocker: Phew, finally managed to upload a feature I've spent four freakin' hours on today, T3's Top 50 concept cars! Too tired for Moo

19:00 richardmoross MOO party is in full effect.

20:00 danco: I wish I was at the MOO party.

21:00 richardmoross: £1000 just added to the bar tab! Come get the last of the free drinks!

22:00 iaintait Got denied at Moo front door so drank 3x beer elsewhere - now at east croydon weeping slightly...

22:00 Selbelina: @reynolds how did you get invite to a MOO party?

22:30 panto: Anyone else spot michelle dewbury at moo party?!

22:30 rbremer Just left moo party (sad) but picked up salt beef bagel on the way home (happy)

23:00 vikkichowney - had a truly great time at the moo party, but still think i missed people

01:00 acton Post moo party beigel on brick lane

01:00 richardmoross Finally in cab, heading home, thanks all so much for coming

01:30 girlonetrack Leaving Brick Lane, drunk. Thanks to all the friendly geeks I ended up in the bar with; bunch of nice lads, y'all.

02:30 robertloch With @paulcarr and @scottrutherford and we have no intention of ending...

03:00 robertloch I genuinely think that the moo party tonight was a massive neglect of a great brand. No effort, no creativity, no money. wtf

03:00 robertloch Moo great products, great company, great ceo, crap parties.

09:00 jon_bedford: Bumped into a very old school friend I'd not seen for 8 years at the MOO party last night - random!

10:00 KashaFrese: @ijeanes Hey! What's the Moo party?

11:00 builtbydave: @robertloch where were you? Moo party had loads of effort/creativity/money. Rawked.

11:00 natmiller: Whats all this about a Moo party? I heard the ONLY party to attend this week was tomorrow! exclusive invites only..

12:00 Champney Had a blast last night with London's finest! Afternoon drinks at the East Room courtesy of @robertloch then Moo's party at the Vibe Bar!

12:00 girlonetrack Realising that yes, I *did* have a 'Yay!' sticker stuck between my cleavage throughout most of last night. But I lost the 'FAIL' one, sadly.

12:30 oswald808: This sums up the end of last nights Moo party http://icanhaz.com/davesshoe

15:30 simonprockter Still recovering from Internet Peeps and Moo. Good to see the old Crimsonites at The East Room

Thursday just got better!

"Newsflash: this Thursday
Internet Peeps afternoon
Queen Mary, top deck"
Haikurious George

The missing link between Thursday's Open Coffee morning and moo.com party has just been filled, thanks to the Nigel Dempster and Piers Morgan (cross bred with George Best and Oliver Reed) of the Internet World.

Robert Loch (super networker and plotter of many an idea unfulfilled) together with Paul Carr (author of the much feared forthcoming release Bringing Nothing to the Party - True confessions of a New Media Whore) are throwing a special afternoon Internet Mixer. The weather is forecast to be sunny and 27 degrees and as cynically pointed out by Loch, probably the only week that will be hot this summer.

The afternoon is a one off event combining a range of interesting people from London's internet sector together with the usual hangers on. And, as it's hosted by Robert and Paul, expect the Pimms to be served in buckets and the beer and wine to flow like a Sunday morning pee.

So who can we expect to see there? At time of press there seems to be only one person - the ever up for an excuse for a drink Simon Prockter of SpeedBreaks and formerly SpeedDater. But, hopefully you can also mingle with some interesting people. The event promises to be a hugely enjoyable and valuable afternoon. You need to R.S.V.P. so they can keep an eye on numbers. R.S.V.P. directly to Robert Loch.

The event starts at 2pm onboard the Queen Mary on the Embankment and goes on till 6pm at which point the venue will move to Exmouth Market for the moo.com party.

If you're still alive on Friday, I'd love to hear about it.

In the best light

I know you've all been wondering what I look like so I decided to share some of my photo collection. I tried to choose some of my favourite ones, but I just couldn't find any decent daylight shots. You know how it is, there's never a camera around when you need one.

Enjoy! www.flickr.com/photos/haikuriousgeorge