Local production company Indelible produced a 3-minute video for Cucumber Digital Solutions promoting their product Digidocs.  Digidocs makes paperless publishing a breeze and is already being employed by local governments and companies across New Zealand, with enquiries coming in from Australia and South Africa.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUwi5koEjp4

Pass It On is a website that is using the 2011 Rugby World Cup and other major events in 2011 to promote Kiwi businesses with an international profile worldwide. Specifically, it wants to get New Zealanders living outside of New Zealand to start talking about Kiwi businesses to their friends and collegues in whatever country they may reside in. The Pass It On website and the videos on it comprise a toolkit where people outside of New Zealand can learn more about specific New Zealand businesses.

Posting a video on the Pass It On website is an excellent promotional tool for Hawkes Bay businesses with an international profile. Pass It On gives businesses the opportunity to tell thousands of potential local and overseas clients about themselves all for the cost of producing a short video (you can post your video on the Pass It On website for free). The video will remain on the site until November of 2011.

Indelible has been added to Pass It On's preferred network of video providers.   We look forward to helping other businesses tell the world about their products.  You can contact Indelible at 06 842 2383, or email us at info@indelible.co.nz.

There is the Kotahi movement towards getting a common front of HB companies to present to the rest of the world but I was particularly interested myself in having a base somewhere to develop a Technology/Design centre. Hawkes Bay would lend itself perfectly for it!

This could be done by setting up a space somewhere that acts as a Serviced Office environment where the companies that are compatible with each other are carefully selected to occupy the space. By selecting the companies carefully you would have an assembly of companies that have synergies with each other that drive the bigger good towards where you want it to develop. Ie. if you select Design led and Technology companies you will by default end up with a Technology/ Design centre whereby customers have everything that they need for their design in one place.

For instance: Axia have amazing design capabilities in house and they have the only 3D printer in the Bay! Hook these guys up with some other like minded companies (Web developer, Graphics/ Concepts Company, Laser cutting Company, Paper print company, some accountant using Xero, a reseller of WorkflowMax for project management etc etc), put them in a space somewhere (Ahuriri for example), let it boil a little bit and see what amazing projects they as a group would attract to the HB!

Does that make sense? Is there anyone that thinks that there is some practicality in this? The government in the new budget are going to hand out more towards R&D so why not use it right here in the Bay?

Hence, we are looking at getting a young group of small business owners together that are looking for a professional office space to occupy and offer them the possibility of engaging in a rental of a space in a Serviced Office in Napier called "The Green Room". Exact location is still to be determined.

To find out more, see our marketplace listing: http://www.fruitbowl.co.nz/marketplace/getting-a-headache-from-banging-your-head-against-the-wall-in-solitude/

Any comments or thoughts, always welcome..

(as long as they are positive ones.. )

The Green Room... an office space in Napier where you can rent your own office space for an affordable price. A place where you are surrounded with like minded people that you can bounce ideas off. You have access to all that you require to make your job so much easier.. a proper meeting room, an admin person, kitchen facilities etc etc..

Imagine the look on your customer's face when they are mightily impressed with your office location, your logo on the door, the way that "your" receptionist answers your phone so professionally and the general electrifying buzz in the air when you take your customer into your office...

Advantages

• You have people to talk to and swap ideas with, pushing your business in the correct direction.
• Professional image.
• All the facilities you need are there.
• Don't take your work home.

Disadvantage

• You will have to wear that stupid happy grin on your face the whole time you're at work..

INTERESTED?

Email paul@smartinfo.co.nz with any questions or register your interest straight away

The Long Now Foundation:

The Long Now Foundation was established in 01996* to develop the Clock and Library projects , as well as to become the seed of a very long-term cultural institution. The Long Now Foundation hopes to provide counterpoint to today's "faster/cheaper" mind set and promote "slower/better" thinking. We hope to creatively foster responsibility in the framework of the next 10,000 years.

The Long Now Foundation's monthly Seminars were started in 02003 to build a compelling body of ideas about long-term thinking; to help nudge civilization toward our goal of making long-term thinking automatic and common instead of difficult and rare.

Audio (free) and Video (by subscription) podcasts are available here .

TED

The most fascinating collection of interesting, intelligent, challenging, and inspiring presentations.

TED is a small nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design. Since then its scope has become ever broader. Along with the annual TED Conference in Long Beach, California, and the TEDGlobal conference in Oxford UK, TED includes the award-winning TEDTalks video site, the Open Translation Program, the new TEDx community program, this year's TEDIndia Conference and the annual TED Prize.

Free Video podcasts are available here.

CUNY Lecture Series (City University of New York)

These podcast tend to have a New York focus but they also look at many general interest subjects such as sustainability. A recent anti-"occupation" podcast on Afghanistan provides insights well hidden or not reported in mainstream corporate media.

An Afghan activist representing a Kabul-based human rights organization has a harsh message for the U.S. and its allies. “Afghanistan is a free country, but only for rapists,” said “Zoya,” who uses a pseudonym and won’t be videotaped or photographed. “It’s free for the drug lords who have made the country the largest producer of opium, for the warlords to commit any kind of crime without the least concern, and for foreign troops to kill our civilians.” “Zoya” spoke on behalf of the Revolutionary Association of Women of Afghanistan (RAWA) on a panel that examined the escalating conflicts in Afghanistan as the U.S. enters its eighth year of intervention.

Free Audio podcasts are available here.

If you have time, check out either the ten minute video summary or the full overview (1 hour 20 minutes) from the Google site.

Real Time Collaboration

Google Wave is both a communication and collaboration system. Messages, instead of being emails, are called "Waves" and do much more than simple contain text. Instead, a Wave is more like a combination of email and interactive document. All participants can edit the Wave, and it can contain embedded media. The sequence of edits is stored and can be replayed, and it's even possible to have multiple edits happening in real time.

Website Embedding

Rather than simply existing within the Wave interface, Waves can be embedded into web pages and blogs, and edits can be done on the page itself. This functionality could offer wiki style page edits on your site (among authorised users), which could make it easier to keep a website information current.

Text Correction and Translation

In-context spelling correction not only offers spelling correction, but suggests words based on the context of the sentence.

It also seems that the system can offer a babelfish-like ability to type in your native language while simultaneously displaying the text in a foreign language. This could be an incredible tool for communicating with international clients.

Drag and Drop Files Sharing

While conversing or collaborating on a Wave, you can drag and drop images and other media into the document.

Custom Applications

As the system is open source, it includes an API for developers to create their own plugins. Expect to see a wide variety of tools to expand and add to the Wave experience.

Register for an invite

As the system is currently in a closed beta state, you can request an invite here. (Thanks to Mike Holding for the link)

Endless possibilities

With the system being open source and offering a good platform for developers, the possibilities for Google Wave are endless. Would this online collaboration be useful for your organisation? Hit the comments below with ideas!