Find me at AdrianMelrose.com

Thanks for visiting Fat Ideas.

I’ve reached the end of my journey on Fatideas.com.

Normal service resumes at blog.AdrianMelrose.com which is a Tumblr blog and you can also visit AdrianMelrose.com which is an aggregator of any media I create as well as my favourites that I find in my stream.

If you skip over to the new blog, this post explains why I’ve abandoned this real estate!

One of the recent responsibilities I have taken on with great pride is that of Treasurer of Great Bealings Church. You’ll probably find this slightly incongruous with the Rocky Horror Show, please bear with me!

The Church’s outgoing treasurer of 17 years, Roger Roseboom, is a delightfully larger than life character who continues to pursue his gifted interest in youth theatre and amateur dramatics.  Roger and I have become chums during the handover process. After he discovered that I had spent the majority of my school days either in the orchestra pit or on stage (rather than on the Rugby field) I immediately fell prey to Roger’s casting.When he heard we’d sent our two girls to Woodbridge School, he seized the opportunity to co-opt me onto the cast of The Woodbridge Fringe Uncut which he and his wife Margaret are producing under, describing their production company as EP Produtions  “Embarassing Parent Productions” Say no more!

So what is this production all about?  First it is in aid of the charity SCARC (Suffolk Communication Aids Resource Centre) which is based at the Thomas Wolsey School in Ipswich.  The aim is to raise as much money as possible for electronic equipment to enable severely disabled young people to communicate, possibly for the first time!

The idea for the show grew out of another charity auction event in which generous Woodbridge School parents ‘won’ the Seckford Theatre for a day.  I shall be one of nearly forty fellow parents in tow as a cast, there to entertain you, the audience, with gems from Sister Act 1 and 2 (rocking nuns to get the feet tapping); she also has Beautiful Girls from Sondheim’s Follies,The Time Warp from The Rocky Horror Picture Show (audience participation and appropriate costumes most welcome…); with comedy sketches and solo songs

I’ve deliberately not given you much notice of the event. By no means do I have a major role. I’m performing in the 4 Yorkshiremen in the sketch below (yorkshire accents for a born and bred South African particularly challenging) and also am Riff in the Rocky Horror Picture show – Let’s do the Time Warp Again! which involves choreography something which takes me far out of my comfort zone. All I can say is that I do it for a bit of fun, and for charity! So please support this worthy event if you have nothing planned this Saturday night.

The performance is on Saturday 3rd December 2011 at 730pm at the Seckford Theatre. You can book tickets, which are £10 each, by following this link

Some may not understand why this morning found me all choked up. Irrespective of your generation, we should all be able to name one or two people who have shaped the way you think; have inspired you to be better people. Steve Jobs is one of those men to me and he is no longer with us.

He has shown us how to test the boundaries with everything we do. He was driven in his quest for simplicity and perfection. The example he set us was not just about defining the technology curve. He was a leader – one of the greatest leaders of my time.

He should also be remembered for his personal war on cancer in the the last 6 years of his life, an example of his fight, dedication and passion.

It’s still early in the day and we’ll see some befitting dedications to Mr Jobs, but this (thanks to Ken Segall  is the one that moved me early this morning when I discovered the sad news.

Amidst the mobile phone hacking blame-game, how many of you understand how this hacking took/takes place?

Don’t for a minute think the hacking procedure is an elaborate thing. “Hacking” makes you think of a  Bletchley styled operation: a technical and deliberate science. Sorry to disappoint you.  It is far simpler than that.

A few years back when you signed up for a mobile phone number  your voicemail came with a default pin code. You weren’t asked to change it before use and you weren’t explained why you needed to change it and the risk of not changing it. I *think* this has now changed (I really do hope it has). Even today, you probably rarely use the pin code because when you dial into your voicemail from your phone you are authenticated by your mobile number (assuming you haven’t blocked your caller ID).

But did you know that you can access your mobile phone’s voicemail from any landline too? See the footer of this post for the numbers to dial. All you have to do is enter you mobile phone number and your pin.  That’s the first big fail on the part of the networks – they have failed to educate people about how voicemail works. They have failed to protect their customers. What’s worse is that unless you change your pin, it remains set to a default four zeros, or 1234 etc depending on the network.

If the mobile operators forced their customers to set their own private PIN (most now do)- none of this scandal would have happened. But if you’ve had your mobile for years there is still a good chance you run the risk of a default pin number.  The mobile operators have done nothing to help you tighten up the security. I think the onus is on them.

Would you trust your bank if it mailed out your debit card with a default pin number on it and expected you to change it?

So why did the mobile phone operators get away with it? They haven’t been asked to account for the blatant breach in protecting their customers’ privacy. If they had prioritised security and education none of this invasion would have taken place. It was just too simple and too tempting for the “scum-of-the-world” reporters to resist.

Whilst there’s no defence to invading anyone’s privacy, I hold the Mobile operators jointly and severally liable for this diabolical mess.

=======================

Vodafone UK – 07836 121 121
O2 –  07569 149 187
Orange 07973 100 123

and if I haven’t listed your operator above simply Google “Accessing my XXX voicemail from a landline” and replace XXX with your operator.

Many of you will have watched me launch AoB at the end of last year whilst at Dreamforce in San Francisco. Shortly thereafter, it dawned on me that I desperately needed a talented team to help me implement the ideas and solutions that I develop for clients. The overall team needed to offer “a formidable blend of business strategy, creative flair and programming expertise”.

Several months later, I’m extremely proud and excited to announce the launch of The First 65.

My co-founders are James Kindred and Chris Waters of Condiment fame. I have so enjoyed working with James and Chris (as a client of Condiment’s) and have been immensely impressed by their grasp of where the web is taking us. It was a natural extension to joint-venture with them on The First 65.

To complement James and Chris’ extreme creativity, vision, client service and down-to-earth approach we’re wildly excited to announce the appointment of three superbly talented people. Tom Crinson, Nina Christensen and Anders Fisher all of whom join Chris, James and I today. We’ll be working out of the Condiment offices in Ipswich. The First 65 will operate alongside Condiment who will continue to operate as a separate brand and business. Obviously the skills of the two businesses will intersect across many future clients.

Tom will head up the development team – we’ve rescued Tom from the toils of a London commute! Tom runs the Ipswich Ruby Group and there’s no surprise that The First 65 have chosen Ruby as our development cornerstone – we are on the road to becoming a Force.com accredited development house. (For an explanation on the what and why of Force.com, please read my AoB post here.) Tom is joined by a right hand man, Anders, an equally talented developer.

Nina is no stranger to the Suffolk Digital scene too and she will assume the responsibility of account, product and project management. Nina joins us from Notcutts, where she was the E-Commerce manager. Before that, Nina was a client account manager at Jamie Riddell’s agency Cheeze.

We’re not launching with anything traditional, I’m afraid: no glitsy website etc. We’ve worked hard on our elevator pitch though and we have a place to announce things (blog.first65.com)  and naturally we have a twitter account (twitter.com/First65) and two facebook pages facebook.com/First65 and facebook.com/fcommerce , so please follow us there. You’ll get to know what we do when we start showcasing our client and product work (think 37signals) . Right now we’re noses down working for some really exciting brands – we’ll let you know when we’ve got something to show you!

Enchantment by Guy Kawasaki

Last night I travelled into London to see Guy Kawasaki‘s keynote. I have to admit that I smiled from beginning to end- he’s such a lovely speaker.

Being a Guy Kawasaki fanboy (which frankly I’m not ashamed to admit) can be frowned upon by those active in social media circles because he became so noisy pushing out content from his Alltop content distillation business.

The Guy Kawasaki who enchanted me in 2006 did it with his address on his first book Art of the Start. Ever since then I’ve always wanted to see him live. Last night was my opportunity when he came to talk to us about his new book: “Enchantment: The art of changing hearts, minds and actions”. The advice he dispensed could easily have been esoteric but instead, it was practical and very credible: I’ve followed him for some years now and he practices what he preaches. More than half a dozen times he’s replied to any conversation I’ve initiated with him on Twitter, for instance.

The best part for you: last night’s keynote is available to watch in the comfort of your armchair – you really ought to. I managed to walk away with a signed copy and if I’m enchanted enough, I’ll post a review.

Thank you to Graham Brown-Martin of Learning without Frontiers for giving us the opportunity to listen to Guy.

Source: Suffolkcoastal.gov.uk

Background We are all unsure of whether Suffolk County Council is in the position to continue to fund the Woodbridge Library expenditure of circa £300k per annum. There is now an urgent need to reduce costs and/or turn to alternate funding models to preserve and enhance the current service provision. The threat to continuity of service is of great concern to the local community (not necessarily limited to the current library users)

Opportunity As a current user of the Woodbridge Library (only, however, on behalf of our young children) my observation is that there is an opportunity to tap into a demographic of user that isn’t currently engaged in this community hub: those that create and consume media digitally (online). If we were to bring this demographic into the user base of the Woodbridge Library, we’d create a subsidiary revenue stream, and support structure of digitally inclined people who would both help with the ongoing running of the existing library services (stacking books, staffing help desk etc) as well as help create a critically needed Race Online 2012 (see below) presence in Woodbridge

Current Observations Out of town Suffolk has a poor reputation for the provision of higher speed broadband. There are currently few “digital spaces” for owner managed businesses who have harnessed the power of digital to meet, work and build a “startup culture” network.  Woodbridge Library has a wonderful new purpose-built building including a conference room in it. I have discovered that this room is for hire at a charge of £35 per half day. It can accommodate 25 guests. It’s modern, beautifully appointed and light and airy. This charge may initially sound understated but I later discovered that there is no provision of internet! – neither cabled or wifi anywhere in the Library. Should this required internet facility be offered, I can see no reason why the room would not be in great demand and command a daily rate way in excess of the current one. Not only that, but the occupancy would rise dramatically. I am yet to see the room in use by any group other than the library staff. Not only would the room be a fantastic facility but would increase the footfall to- and user base of- the library.

Building a Digital Hub in Woodbridge In terms of the above and whilst the provision of internet (both cabled and wifi) would be a great way to boost the library revenue stream I feel that the space described above could be used in a more meaningful way both boosting the revenue stream and creating a digital hub in Woodbridge expanding the user demographic of the Library to create a pool of progressive digitally inclined volunteers who would support the current and proposed community initiatives. If the room were to be used to create a members only hot desking work environment the Woodbridge Library could become a digital hub in Suffolk. Paid membership would entitle users to access a “hotdesk” in the facility for up to 10 hours a week – booked online on first-come-first-served basis this facility could produce up to £10k per month (roughly 120 members of £80 per month) The setup cost would be minimal and involve purchasing workstations:  this could be sponsored by one of the private digital agencies in Suffolk.

Race Online 2012 – A community initiative in Woodbridge Going forward it is critical that those who have been digitally empowered help those who have been excluded (for whatever reason: social, economic or lack of knowledge/empowerment/confidence/facilities). The Library’s support base continues to be threatened by the Digital Divide and rather than fight it, the Libraries need to embrace this and play a central role in bridging this divide. Race Online 2012 is a national campaign to give Britain’s socially and digitally excluded equal access to life-changing power of technology – founded and championed by Martha Lane Fox – the UK Government’s digital champion (see http://raceonline2012.org )

Conclusion What better way to transform the Woodbridge Library into a digital hub – creating a precious revenue stream to preserve the existing services but also to recruit a new digital demographic who can also help in the Race Online initiative?

Next Steps A group within the Suffolk Digital Community would be fully prepared to develop a comprehensive plan if the above achieves any traction. It goes without say that this would be a project for the community by the community and would be funded by the volunteers. Do you agree with me? Could you help with a strategy like this? Please comment below and let’s rally some support please.

Dual posted on AOB – you can download a PDF of the document I submitted here.

Photo with thanks to spudballoo.com

We’ve been raising a few Tamworth Pigs on @RoseryFarm in Great Bealings and when I discovered Mike Keen (@theIpswichTap) was suggesting a Hog Roast for food at the Suffolk Twestival party, our donation became obvious.

I thought I’d share the story of Mr Pig’s upbringing just so you know. We originally purchased 6 ‘girl piglets’ in autumn last year from Karon and Simon Sanders a friendly and helpful couple who own Stackyard Nursery (@stackyard) (you must visit them- it’s a fine example of a Suffolk owner managed business). I wanted 6 little girls to avoid the trouble of separating them when the boys wanted to get “active”. As it turned out, a little piglet in the pack hid his bits pretty well and was mistaken to be a girl, but turned out to a rather hefty boar! He’s the hog on the roast, I’m afraid. So if anyone asks, that’s the process I followed to select the Suffolk Twestival hog!

I was responsible for feeding the pigs twice a day during the harsh winter and defrosting their water supply every morning – one morning I was forced to drive down to the pigs’ field in the Land Rover as it was just too cold to walk or take the quad bike – the temperature gauge registered minus 10 degrees C!

A number of people have been confused by my recent decision to convert to a vegan way of life. This decision was purely motivated by health considerations although I have always held animal welfare very high as a personal value.

Raising the pigs is an experimental business for us. At no stage, was I under the false pretenses that they were ever to be pets although I had a natural fondness for them. As a pig farmer (yes, who would have believed it) – I am vehemently opposed to drugs and feel that there is no other option but to give an animal a free-range existence. The pigs were born in the sunshine (or as much as we have in the UK) and lived on open land with plenty of space – should anyone wish to come and visit – I’d be happy to show them around.

Yesterday at the abattoir I led Mr Pig past a pen of sickly, anaemic looking pigs that have clearly never seen the light of day. They had calloused feet being raised on concrete and they looked very unhappy.  That is not right or fair and I would never knowingly support a business that derived profit out of such derision.

Our Mr Pig had a very happy life. No two ways about it – the decision to end its life was mine. It rests heavy on my heart but I do not regret it, I am proud that your Hog Roast is brought to you from a very ethical farm, just round the corner, and in support of such a wonderful charitable cause.

Suffolk has a reputation for top notch Pork and I learnt a lot from my Pork in a Day Food Safari last year. Polly Robinson (@foodsafariuk), the founder of Food Safari has kindly donated to the Suffolk Twestival Raffle/Auction this year– a very generous ticket to her Lamb Butchery Course on the May 5. It’s so important for all of us to understand the “From Field to Fork” process. In my opinion, we should all have a responsibility to understand where our food comes from and the implications of our buying choices and personal tastes. Suffolk also has a growing reputation as a self-sufficient food county and I do hope everyone continues to support our wonderful farmers and producers. We have much to be proud of.

My parting words, the hog on the roast is enough to feed 150 and it would be a travesty of justice if we didn’t sell-out! Please bring your friends and make sure Mr Pig doesn’t go to waste. Thank you. Tickets are available here.

For more photos and Piggy talk – please read “This little piggy went to market”

For those of you who’d like to know a little more about Suffolk Twestival I put a little video together. You’ll see the pigs in the background!

Twestival (and Twitter) is all about Community - let's pull together and show what Suffolk can do!

The year has flown by since 2010′s Suffolk Twestival  held in Bury St Edmunds. I joined-in at the very last minute and helped drum up a bit of support. For me, attending was a defining moment in our lives (having relocated to Suffolk from London 6 months previously) – I have to say that the people I met that evening and continue to meet through their Twitter social network have been amazing. I’m truly honoured today to call so many my friends.

Twestival was conceived by a lovely person called Amanda Rose a few years back when Twitter was just an emerging social networking platform and it was the serious early adopters who saw its potential. She organised a bunch of Twitter folk (Tweeps) to get together in a central London venue and raise money for charity. Amanda best describes Twestival’s origins and how the Twitter community was mobilised- together raising a staggering $1.2m to date!

Talking Suffolk, the turnout in 2010 was modest (but of wonderful quality- for instance our guest speaker was Jamie Riddell ) and it feels as if Twitter has “gone mainstream” in Suffolk since then! – that’s why we’ve set ourselves a regional fund raising target of £5,000 and I feel with everyone’s help we can support all the wonderful volunteer work our Suffolk Twestival Regional co-ordinator continues to put into the day’s events- she’s the wonderfully organised and inspring Emma Jell to whom we owe many thanks!

For those of you who’ve heard me speak evangelically on social media, you’ll know that I attempt to demystify social media and social networking tools by encouraging you to think of them as community tools. These tools help us restore and extend our sense of community (an old fashioned concept that I feel we’ve all lost to a certain degree). Twitter restores the sense of community – it works, trust me!

Twestival is also about community and this year we are fortunate to have the opportunity to raise funds for a local Suffolk Based Charity. Twestival HQ has given us the go ahead to raise money for The Suffolk Foundation and specifically for their Suffolk Disability Care Fund: a fund that awards grants to disabled Suffolk residents who may not otherwise have support from  the NHS, Suffolk County Council or other statutory providers. Clearly, with all the recent pressures on funding, a gap that desperately needs plugging.

I’m going to be sharing my experiences in the run-up to the event on 24 March, when I’m looking forward to meeting some of the recipients of past funding and interview the Development Director of The Suffolk Foundation to name a few – all the content will be posted on the Suffolk Twestival social media presence.

A group of us have got together and donated time and various other things in the quest to reach our fundraising target and to help the disabled in need in Suffolk.

Thursday 24th March promises to be a fun-filled day of community. The Suffolk Digital community has got together and will be holding events (all proceeds to Twestival). Please check out the website for further details. The day culminates in an evening event at The Brewery Tap in Ipswich.

I’m going to be donating my time between 10am and 3pm and holding a one-on-one Surgery either in Woodbridge or Orford (venue to be confirmed) **UPDATE**: I’m going to be at Pump Street Bakery in Orford and you’re welcome to hit me with your most challenging questions. If you need to know a little bit more about me – have a read through my profile on my business site, Any Other Business. I’m happy to talk to you about business models, process, technology,  growth strategy and social media (amongst others). I’m sure my independent perspective on your business will be valuable and is well worth the £25 per half hour session that you’ll have to donate to Suffolk Twestival’s cause.

Tickets will be available soon and should be purchased from the official Suffolk Twestival page. Once you’ve purchased your tickets please get in touch with me at contact at adrianmelrose.com to schedule a slot between 10 and 3pm.

Otherwise, as I did last year – I’ll be in touch with local businesses to get them to attend as many of the day’s events as possible and if you can’t make it- hopefully you can make a donation in cash or in kind. Please get in touch if you’d like to help and participate in this fabulous Suffolk Community.

Both December and Dreamforce 2010 feels distant now. A conference that drew me to San Francisco as one of the 30,000 delegates but one of the few from Europe. I had a brilliant time and left a Salesforce.com evangelist excited about the opportunities it presents my business. Yet this post isn’t about the cloud, technology or how this conference will shape my curiosity in 2011, it’s about something different and even more exciting and empowering.

It all started when Marc Benioff the founder of Salesforce.com opened his second day keynote introducing the enormous contribution that he and the company he leads is making to the Pioneering field of research medicine and he concluded by inviting us to attend a lecture track of “Unusual Thinkers” during the day’s itinerary.

The speakers (all leaders in their medical field) spoke on various subjects. The presentation I chose to attend was entitled “Sugar: the Bitter Truth” by Prof Robert H. Lustig, MD, UCSF Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Endocrinology

The essence of Prof Lustig’s talk convinced me that the strain placed on our world’s health systems by obesity was a result of the impact that our increased consumption of Fructose Corn Syrup was having on our lives and that obesity isn’t generally a result of Gluttony and Sloth. I really encourage you to watch the Youtube Video – it’s only 30 minutes.

The crux of my understanding: the trouble with processed foods is that the fibre is stripped away from the foodstuff. Take fruit juice for example. I’ve always thought that drinking fresh juice couldn’t possibly be bad for me. But what does a juicer do? A glass of apple juice is produced from a bag of apples and all the fibre is left in the waste disposal process.

There are two problems with drinking juice: firstly fibre is needed because it slows down the absorption of the sugar into the bloodstream. Secondly you end up consuming the sugar out of a dozen apples in a single glass. Before the advent of the juicer we wouldn’t eat a dozen apples in a sitting.  Lustig reminds us that one of the principal reasons food is processed is it to make it freezable. Fibre doesn’t freeze well so it’s stripped from modern food stuffs.

I left illuminated by the damage that an overdose of fructose has on our health – I resolved to cut out juices both from my diet and our childrens’.

That evening I met up with Mike, an ex-colleague and friend who ran the San Francisco branch of a digital business in which I was involved. When we greeted each other I was blown away by how healthy he looked and how much weight he had lost. After hearing President Clinton’s keynote address we grabbed a meal together. The last time we’d done that was in 2007 in San Fancisco in a real American diner consuming the (then) typical american diet. This time Mike sought a vegetarian restaurant and so unfolds the story of how he had transformed himself to the picture of health. It’s all argued in a book called “Eat to Live” by Dr Joel Fuhrman and Mike suggested I read it and persuaded me that it was the only way and that I at least owed it to my children.

It was sold out at Borders on Union Square and I flew back to the UK before I was able to track down a copy. Frustratingly it wasn’t available in the UK on Amazon until a month later but I preordered it and it arrived the day before we left for our holiday in the sun in Egypt: perfect reading material especially because I’ve never been a great fan of fiction.

The book solidly destroys several myths which formed so much of my educational upbringing. Being backed up by comprehensive research, case studies and practical and identifiable interpretation and explanation I found the book gripping.

Here’s a little test: Which has more protein 100g of steak or 100g of broccoli? Wrong! 100g of broccoli has! Dr Fuhrman convinces the reader to be a nutritarian, a title he coined. In an equation that measures the worthiness of food by its magnitude of nutrients as a proportion of callories he convinces us to avoid empty calories – those that leave us feeling empty and  devoid of nutrients. You see: 100g of Brocolli is more than we’d usually contemplate eating in a sitting but it leaves us feeling full having all the nutrients and protein we need but with measurably less calories.

His arguments steer us away from the consumption of animal, dairy and processed foods and he explains why a vegan diet is optimal and that a vegan diet is not lacking in any nutrient even dispelling the common misunderstanding that we need calcium from milk to avoid osteoporosis.

The research and argument is one hundred percent compatible with what I heard in the Sugar The Bitter Truth (above)  and I am sold completely. EAT TO LIVE isn’t a diet it’s a framework for health and disease avoidance.

He makes no bones about the first 6 weeks being a cruel adjustment in which your body needs to cure you of the addiction to toxic hunger and he’s pretty convinced that after the six weeks I’ll not want to go back to my previously errant ways explaining that the taste of low nutrient foods will abhor me.

As I write this I am obese – no better way to put it. I weigh 125kg and have been struggling with my health and finding it impossible to escape the continuing spiral of weight gain. Week before last, one of our daughters friends at school’s dad was taken tragically after seemingly a long fight against cancer and there are far too many people within our circle whose lives are tragically impacted by Cancer.

Convinced of Dr Fuhrman’s case I begin my conversion on Tuesday when I return from holiday – I know I’m converted by its argument just by the way in which it has shaped my holiday food consumption. I’ve avoided the foods that I’d normally be eating in a buffet style menu and I’m already feeling a difference.

This is my fourtieth year and have so much to be grateful for and live for so I’m going to eat to live. I’ll keep you posted!