The guide is free but you need to request a copy from the Kemp Little website http://www.kemplittle.com/html/stay-posted/publications/employment-guide.html and contact them with the details of the guide you’d like to receive.
Friday, October 29, 2010
Kemp Little Guide To UK Employment Law 2010-2011
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
56 Sage Street - a game to help youngsters get to grips with managing their money
Barclays says: 'The question the game asks is: ‘How does someone with nothing end up with everything?’ The answer: 56 Sage Street, an addictive free game in which players roam a vast city finding work, or places to stay, meeting new challenges and picking up contacts to help players make it to the top. If you reach 56 Sage Street you'll have proven yourself to Mr C and he'll give you his empire to run. Score!'
This is a roleplaying game and you choose your character and you are set tasks to improve yourself and your bank balance by working - and you need to choose the right kind of job, improve your chances of getting work or somewhere to live by looking after your appearance and doing good turns like walking an elderly neighbour's dog, being friendly, being good at your job etc. And this all affects not only your bank balance, but also your energy levels, appearance and reputation - all of them count so it's not just about money which is a good life lesson in itself. There are also some scams along the way to avoid.
I'm not a big gamer, online or otherwise, and I'm certainly not in the target market so I'm interested to see reviews from real players rather than reviewers like myself. Since the game links to a virtual mobile, it would be interesting to see how this would play out on a mobile - maybe the messages and tasks come through to your mobile phone? Or the game is ported to compatible devices (it would have to be devices with a decent-sized screen)? And let's not forget the Sony PSP as I know *a lot* of mobile traffic comes by way of that device. But I digress. The game is not currently available for mobile and maybe that's sensible since it's not teenagers and young people who are obsessed by the iPhone, unlike some of their older siblings.
Anyway, I've played the game. It is engaging. It does teach you the basics about managing your life and your money and it seems to be good fun. You don't have to play the whole thing at once as you can connect it to Facebook and save your status. And if you're so inclined you can share some of the medals and awards you win along the way via Twitter and Facebook. I didn't, but I can see that teens and tweens might like to do just that. Whether or not it's good fun for the teens and tweens they're trying to reach, I can't tell as I'm not in that age bracket, but the game felt pretty slick. Mild criticisms would be that it's not that easy to navigate and some of the tasks are repetitive. And the car noises definitely got on my nerves very quickly, but you can turn those off. And I think the ending needs some work too. But I won't reveal that to you in case you'd like to try it. Nevertheless, it's worth a look. I guess we'll just have to wait and see how many young people play the game, what they say about it and on top of that, choose to share how they're getting on with it with their friends. I shall be watching with interest.
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Phone Pay Plus consultation–your chance to have a say
For folks running premium rate services in the UK, you should already be familiar with Phonepay Plus (formerly ICSTIS) as they’re the regulator looking after that particular area of our industry. I know they’re not always the most popular folks in town, but they do have consumer interests at heart and I think it’s a very good thing that they exist.
Anyway, I’ve just had an email from my friends at the Mobile Entertainment Forum to alert me that there is now a consultation period for the new code due to come into force next year. The consultation period was announced today and closes 19 January 2011. I’ve copied pretty much word for word what was in their email a it’s useful stuff.
The 12th Code is radically different from the current Code and seeks to deliver outcomes rather than prescribe how services should operate. The premise is that as long as businesses deliver these outcomes for consumers, they will be more free to design their services in a way that suits them and their customers. (Sounds like a good approach to me.Ed) This makes it all the more important that the industry has a good understanding of PpP’s expectations in applying the new rules.
PpP’s consultation on the Guidance Notes shows what the Code means in practice so companies can be confident about what is required of them. The idea of the ‘new’ Guidance is to provide a consolidated source of information so providers of PRS (premium rate services) can easily find what they need and it should also allow for a quicker response to newly-identified risks or unacceptable practices (since Guidance can be updated without the need to amend the Code of Practice itself).
Alex Haffner at SNR Denton has now prepared a Guide covering the most important Guidance Notes for MEF members. (It seems to me that anyone can download a copy of the briefing notes by entering your contact details on the site. If that’s not the case, let me know and I’ll see if I can get a copy I can publish or link to from here so anyone interested can access – Ed.)
MEF has previously published a Guide to the PpP Code consultation.
For more information on MEF’s work please contact Suhail Bhat or Miranda Roberts.
And if you’re in the world of Mobile Entertainment in the UK and beyond, you may want to consider joining the Mobile Entertainment Forum (MEF). This is an example of the good stuff that they do for their members.
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
HP viral video campaign – Be the Star - is pretty neat
HP Be A StarOK, I know this one isn’t mobile at all, but I still like the idea of using personalised video as part of a marketing campaign, and I think Hewlett Packard does this one pretty well. I’m not a big fan of online video – I don’t usually have the patience for it, but I like this one. They’re not promising that they’ll make any of us rich or famous, but they do show us what it might feel like to be in the paparazzi limelight by including your image in a video segment – you can see mine below. And it does this on the fly, and adjusts headlines and copy too. It’s not the first time this has been done (check out my post from 2007 explaining the Get The Message campaign) but it still delights and it is done very well.
So if you fancy giving it a go, then click here to create your own video (this takes you to the facebook app). It's really easy, you can either upload one of your own jpg's from your computer (although I had to rename my photo as the file name had spaces in it and/or was too long) or connect with your facebook account. If you upload your own picture, it asks a few basic questions. If you connect with facebook, it knows the answers to those questions already. And once you've done that, please share it with me by sending me the relevant bit.ly link - either by adding it as a comment below or tweet it to me or email me. I'm curious to know how far-reaching campaigns like this really are.
There's also a facebook group if you're that way inclined too.
This is a Sponsored Post.
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The search for a kettle commences
Yes, that’s right. The search for a kettle has started for the Russell Hobbs K1 from 1955. So yes, it’s an old kettle, but not just any old kettle if you see what I mean. Apparently the K1 was the first kettle in the world to turn itself off once it had boiled rather than you having to wait to turn the kettle off yourself before the kettle boiled dry. The K1 solved the problem with a valve switch that turned the power off when the steam from the boiling water passed through it. Cool, huh!
Jason Steer, European Marketing Director comments: “Despite all the nice stories we hear about the newer K2 product we sadly haven’t been able to track down a working version of its older brother the K1, and this is why we have decided to launch this competition to find a fully operational version. We would like people everywhere to check in their relatives’ attics and basements – anywhere they think one could be hidden”.
Sadly, I know my Mum will have been too fastidious to keep an old kettle lying around but maybe your Mum or your Gran still has one and it’s still making a good cuppa?
Monday, October 11, 2010
Monday morning linkage – 11 Oct 2010
I’ve been offline for a couple of days – radical I know. But it means I have a bit of reading to catch up on. So instead of keeping it to myself, I’ll share some of the links I need to catch up on with you.
* 10 tips for designing PowerPoint presentations – I know this isn’t to do with mobile technology, but since most of you reading this are in business and therefore are likely to be doing presentations at some point or other, then this article is a great resource. And it also links to a crash course on colour theory.
* Got the Monday Morning blues? Fed up with the same old same old? Then give this article a read from the folks at Coolhunting. It might just inspire you to think and be different and do your own thing.
* Now on to mobile stuff – here’s a lovely article and really easy to understand graphs showing how market share for handset manufacturers has shifted in the last three years. Well worth a look.
* Next up is the presentation that Bryan Rieger gave at the recent Over The Air event in London to share Yiibu's experience in designing for the mobile web and the fact that it's not all about Apple and it's not all about Apps. The way the presentation is put together is also worth a look bearing in mind the link above about designing presentations.
* Jolie O’Dell’s take on the state of web app start-ups (arguably applicable to many mobile start-ups too). Some of the language is NSFW.
* And finally, Some insight into DoCoMo’s mobile apps strategy and positioning including lessons from iMode. Worth a look.