Category Archives: Cassandra

Cassandra, in Greek myth, was a prophet who, after spurning Apollo’s advances (like you do), was cursed to be able to foretell the future and to not be believed. Any innovator should recognise that.

So Cassandra is a blog that looks at the world and asks the questions, “Why are things like this?”, “How could they be better?” and then, “How could we get there from here?”. Part analysis, part rant, part vision, it comes from decades of experience in process, organisational dynamics and strategy.

Labour & Broadband

Firstly, a disclaimer: this isn’t a political piece – it’s simply a take on the Labour Party’s pledge today to provide a free full fibre (FTTP) service to every home and business in the UK by 2030. The method by which they will do so is to nationalise OpenReach, and subsidise the rollout and running of a universal fibre infrastructure through a tax on largely non-domiciled tech companies.

Disclaimer aside, let’s look at the individual elements of this proposal: Continue reading Labour & Broadband

Paris, Climate and the Ironies of Trump

This is aimed, in no small part, at my many friends in the US, who I see alternating between despair at their own ‘government’’s behaviour and angst-laden apology to the world for their current Liar-in-Chief. Please, folks, relax, a little at least.

Yes, the withdrawal of the US from the Paris Agreement will do damage – indeed, it already has – but that damage is less to the mitigation of anthropogenic climate change than to US influence in the world.

Continue reading Paris, Climate and the Ironies of Trump

Colliding Worlds

Long ago, I called my consulting company Two Worlds, because so much of my work was, and remains, about reconciling different views and attitudes: technology and business, art and science or physical and virtual worlds. Here though is an instance where two worlds of my own converge head-on: my organisational background and my voluntary work in advanced motorcycle instructing. It’s a rather sad tale but one which parallels and echoes what we so often see in the commercial world.

Continue reading Colliding Worlds

Greeks Needing Gifts

The Greek ‘deal’ is nothing of the sort. It is instead a self-defeating mockery of both the principles and grand vision that founded the EU. As such, it is no more than vindictive and short-sighted retribution for perceived (and, to be fair, actual) past misdemeanours of the Greek government and people. Just how can driving an already broke nation further into indenture, debt and recession do anything other than feed a cycle of recession driving greater debt and, in turn, ever-deeper recession?

Continue reading Greeks Needing Gifts

Internet of Thing?

I’ve just installed a doorbell. “Well, whoop-de-do” I hear you mutter. But bear with me – there’s a sort of a point to this.

It’s a Thing – a Skybell – and it’s connected to the Internet, ostensibly to potentially do useful stuff. Does that though automatically make it part of the buzz of the twenty-teens, the Internet of Things?

Continue reading Internet of Thing?

BBC vs ISP: The Irresistible Force vs The Immovable Abject

One news headline in particular caught my eye today, and it wasn’t the usual “Man Weds Goat” stuff, but one headed, “BBC and ISPs Clash Over iPlayer“, wherein I read with increasing disbelief the words of Simon Gunter of Tiscali, a well-known and largely unremarkable trans-national ISP. After reading same, I found myself provoked, stirred and in a state of generalised arghness. So the following may contain traces of rant.

Continue reading BBC vs ISP: The Irresistible Force vs The Immovable Abject