June 29. The hype around the iPhone reaches its peak as the phone is available in the US as of today. The time when a phone was nothing more than a commodity you picked up at the only provider never seemed more distant. Question is - can Apple sustain iPhone’s initial momentum over the next four months in areas like volume, price and profitability? lees verder…

A few days ago the CIA released Little-known documents detailing illegal activities by the CIA which happened more than 30 years ago — wiretappings of journalists, kidnappings, warrantless searches and more. This information is now made available to the general public.  

CIA Director Michael Hayden said: “The documents provide a glimpse of a very different time and a very different agency”

I am not sure whether such policies and activities have ended, a few years ago the MATRIX project was shut down which analyzed government and commercial databases to find associations between suspects or to discover locations of or completely new “suspects”. This meant that everyone could potentially become a suspect tagged person based on e.g. credit card information, billing adres and known contacts…I wonder what will come out in 30 years…

As said by Lord Acton in 1887: Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely. We have to be really careful in pushing the boundries of privacy and freedom in the war on terror.

Sometimes when you work together on a project for a long time, you’ll automatically develop the same weird sense of humor. The low point in my delusional mindset is when I thought this sexy coffee cup should get a nice pretty face to match the body. Unfortunately, I forgot that I’m not very talented in drawing. That was one of the reasons why I joined the consultancy industry ;) Well, at least we got a good laugh out of it. I hope you do too

HOT Coffee Cup

Just wanted to quickly update you on Accenture’s Global Content Study 2007 I wrote about earlier.  As written on accenture.com: “It’s now free to download.One result is clear: Web 2.0 is real and here to stay. Content owners should view Web 2.0 capability as a must-have. But many are slow to respond. Competition is fierce, and getting fiercer. lees verder…

25 Europese lidstaten, 50 bewindspersonen, duizenden pagina’s geduldig papier en 48 uur om een nieuwe basis te leggen onder het Europa van de toekomst. Dat diversiteit niet altijd makkelijk is blijkt deze dagen wel in Brussel waar de EU-Top zowaar in vuurwerk dreigt te eindigen.

Wanneer verschillende belangen, culturele verschillen, ambities en ego’s opzij gezet moeten worden om samen te werken aan een hoger doel blijkt dat het heden zwaarder weegt dan de toekomst. Je begrijpt natuurlijk wel waarom ik deze vergelijking trek. Wat op Europees niveau speelt is net zo goed aan de hand op nationaal niveau. lees verder…

Recently the city of Amsterdam has started hiring a private security company in order to improve public safety. Until recently inhabitants of certain neighbourhoods in Amsterdam experience a great deal of nuisance from adolescents hanging around in the streets.

With the available public instruments the city of Amsterdam has up til now never managed to entirely control this problem. The police force did not have enough resources for continuous patrol and the initiative to have fathers from certain neighbourhoods patrolling instead failed in an early stage.

So, what to do if public instruments do not provide the necessary means anymore? The answer seems obvious: turn to private companies. In short, To Serve and Protect adressess the youths on their behaviour and the consequences. Furthermore, when someone causes trouble, the entire family is obliged to accept family assistance in the prevention of repetition of the offence.

The results are very good, inhabitants experience much less nuiscance. In some neighbourhoods the number of incidents has even been reduced to zero.

Although the reduction of nuisance is a good thing, you do start to wonder whether a lack of governmental resources or preponderance should be filled by private parties. Public security is a good which in theory should be the monopoly of the government. Is having this job partly filled by private parties is a sign of a weakening state?

Talent is like a plant without water and sunlight, it can’t grow. Well, if this is true then we’ve (my roommate and I) almost killed a talent of ours: Gardening. Living in an apartment comes with additional responsibilities such as watering the plants. Since we’re not always in the apartment (holidays, working in NL, etc); it’s quite difficult from time to time to do such a simple task. The 2 plants below are both trying to survive…

One Living Plant, One Dying Plant

lees verder…

Als we de kranten mogen geloven, staan diversiteit en pluriformiteit van de samenleving in het midden van de belangstelling. Een weekje scannen van twee landelijke dagbladen (Volkskrant en NRC) leverde een oogst van welgeteld 40 artikelen op, te verdelen in Vrouwen (10), Religie/Islam (7), Politiek (7), Kunst & cultuur (5), Integratie van allochtonen (6), Werk (3) en  Leeftijdsdiscriminatie (2).

Stereotiepen en (voor)oordelen genoeg. Het meest ludieke voorbeeld vormt de uitspraak “alle Oostenrijkers zijn dom, alle Zwitsers zijn saai” naar aanleiding van het EK Voetbal van 2008. Clichees te over: Wiener schnitzels zijn ordinair en Zwitserse vrouwen prefereren kennelijk een stevige reep Toblerone boven een wilde vrijpartij. Rivaliteit tussen buurlanden, met een serieuze ondertoon. lees verder…

In April, Accenture hosted its Energy Advisory Board in Japan. We picked this location because Japan is considered to be one of the most advanced nations in dealing with energy efficiency.  During our meetings, we had the opportunity to visit Toyota’s research center where the carmaker is focusing its efforts on the emission free car of the future. lees verder…

As the debate around privacy in the age of increasing surveilence in counter terrorism efforts becomes more critical, its perhaps wise to look at the law. According to the European convention for the protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms; “Everyone has the right to respect for his private and family life, his home and his correspondence.” But if we ask the question who can be a data subject? The answer is: We are all data subjects!
Whenever you book a flight, apply for a job, use a credit card, or browse on the internet, — you disclose some personal data. The question is how is it all tight together and what are the terms of use (And do agencies adhere to it?). If you are interested in the EU law its all available online.
The data protection directive (Law of the EU): its provisions apply, irrespective of the technological means used to process personal data. For example, the directive applies to the invisible collection of personal data on the internet (e.g.: the “cookies” which are used to track the individual surfing habits). On the other hand, if personal data are collected in a “visible” way, it might be argued that an individual transferring his own data has given his consent to such a transfer, provided that he is Properly informed about the risks involved.
It remains to be seen whether the law is really uphold (and really can it?) or has been eroded over the past years.