How the government can help me create jobs and growth

John Key is asking us for ideas on how to help create jobs and growth. So here's my biggest recommendation, as a business owner and potential employer:

• invest heavily in plain language training, so we can quickly understand compliance and actually do what you require.
  
• invest heavily in usability for government websites, including perhaps some standard architecture so we know a government website when we see it, and don't have to relearn how to get around.
  
• design government websites and departments around our needs as business leaders, to reflect our reality, and not the structure of internal silos.
• invest in exercises to give those responsible for helping us (IRD, Companies Office, Department of Labour, etc) empathy and understanding of what we actually do.

By the way, nice speech, John! Superb counterpoint to the prevailing gloom.

Raboplus bank's blogging GM - iJumpTV #50

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We talk blogging with Mike Heath, GM of Raboplus, who not only blogs, he answers customer comments!

We ask Mike:

• How do you handle negative comments?
• Does the blog take a lot of resource and time to maintain
• Why was the blog set up?

 This is a great opportunity to hear from a pioneer in a very conservative industry.

Twestival Press Release

11 Feb 09

NZ Twitterers Kick off Worldwide Charity Event

Online social networkers show the power of social media for social good.

This Thursday, 12 February, Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch will be the first places in the world to kick off a worldwide Twestival.

Founded in 2008 in London by Amanda Rose, a Twestival is simply a group of Twitter users meeting in the real world, and raising funds for CharityWater.

Attendees donate $10 towards CharityWater, either at the door or online at the event page for each city (Auckland , Wellington or Christchurch).

Twestival arose from the popular idea of "tweetups", that is, meetups of people who use Twitter.

Twitter, a microblogging service that launched in late 2006, has recently caught media attention as a reporting tool during crises such as the Victorian bushfires and the Mumbai terrorist attacks. 

More than just a breaking news service, Twitter is a microcosm of the effects of social media in general: friendship, dialogue, business networking, and information sharing. "We're just seeing the beginnings of the changes social media can make," says Simon Young of social media consultancy iJump, one of the companies supporting Twestival.

The Auckland Twestival 2009:

• Venue: Sale Street Brewery
• Time: 5pm - about 9pm
• Partners: Zendesk, Sale Street Brewery, iJump

The Wellington Twestival 2009:

• Venue: Mighty Mighty
• Time: 5:30pm

The Christchurch Twestival 2009:

• Venue: His Lordships Cafe and Bar
• Time: 5pm
  

For more information, contact:

Simon Young, Cofounder/Catalyst
iJump
Ph 021 192 0016
Email simonisntsoyoung@gmail.com
Twitter @audaciousgloop

Proximity-Based marketing (and a free book!) - iJumpTV #49

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Mobile social networking and marketing are going to be big in the next five years. But where will the ideas come from? Geosmart, the people behind the Location Innovation Awards, hope they'll come from you.

We talk to Geosmart's Luigi Cappel about the potential of location-based marketing, and where the entries are coming from.

We're also giving away three copies of Luigi's ebook, Unleashing the Road Warrior, to the first three commentors on this video!

Tweetup tonight in Auckland

(cross-posted from iJump, where I'm blogging more regularly, thanks to our new email newsletter list. Long story.)

On Twitter? Want to be? Want to learn more? In Auckland?

Come along to tonight’s "Tweetup ", starting from 5pm at the Sale Street Brewery .

There’s also the Auckland Twestival , a charity event raising funds for Charity Water , next Thursday at the same venue.

Want to be notified when the next Tweetup is? Join the Auckland Twitter Meetup Group .

Will I see you at either one?

Book Review "Against the Machine" - iJumpTV #48

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Does Web 2.0 have a dark side? Of course it does, and even social media consultants like us discuss it freely. But you wouldn't think so, according to Lee Seigel, author of Against the Machine. He seems to think he's a lone voice, standing bravely against the overwhelming array of "boosters" and shameful collaborators in the mainstream media.

Still, Seigel's bad attitude aside, this is a book worth reading, if only to challenge your thinking.