Archive for February, 2008 « Previous Entries

Come See Me Speak at SFU on March 4, 2008

Friday, February 29th, 2008

On Tuesday, March 4, 2008 I will be one of several panelists speaking at an SFU Work Integrated Learning (formerly Career Services) event called “Start Your Own Business”. The event is available free of charge to any current SFU students or SFU Alumni but the downside is that it’s in the middle of the day [...]

What is a Research Professional?

Wednesday, February 27th, 2008

Last night I was at an alumni event for Communications Co-op students from yesteryear and I had a conversation with a lovely young woman named Janna who was interested in moving out of more traditional marketing-communications activities into the specialized world of Market Intelligence and Research. I was at a bit of a loss because [...]

The New Renaissance - Cottage Industry Technology

Monday, February 25th, 2008

A recent artcile in Wired entitled “Free! Why $0 Is the Future of Business” got me thinking about what high tech consumer goods will look like in the future. First off, I don’t think that $0 is the future of all business. Just ones where the incremental cost per unit is already near $0. Web [...]

Cool Video of a Wind Turbine Exploding

Saturday, February 23rd, 2008

I’ve written a bit about wind turbines in the past and while I support their use, this video is cool as hell.
BOOOOYAH!
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How to Successfully Branch Out As a Consultant

Friday, February 22nd, 2008

Many consultants get stuck in a rut where they are considered a subject matter expert in a small, niche area and have trouble finding work outside of that area. I myself have had a hard time breaking out of science and technology policy research for government agencies. I’m slowly branching out into other areas such [...]

Goods News and Bad News: BC’s New Carbon Tax

Thursday, February 21st, 2008

On Tuesday, February 19, the Government of British Columbia announced that it would introduce a new carbon tax in July, 2008 that would be applied to gasoline and other fuels.
The carbon tax will be phased in to give individuals, businesses, and industry time to adapt, innovate, and reduce the impact of the tax. The carbon [...]

Protip: How to Recover From a Low Response Rate

Wednesday, February 20th, 2008

There are few things as demoralizing to a professional researcher than spending your time getting a survey together, cleaning up your distribution list and offering a prize in a random draw only to have a response rate in the single digit range.
The number one reason for this happening is a survey that targets the wrong [...]

Five Ways to Reduce The Environmental Cost of Your Digital Life

Monday, February 18th, 2008

As I’ve said in previous postings, I’m all about comprehensive cost accounting when looking at greenhouse gas emissions. Put another way, I don’t believe that you can measure the emissions of something without measuring the missions that were created when that something was created. Smelting metal, electricity used to run the machines that build something, [...]

Why Blogging Is Still Important For Consultants

Friday, February 15th, 2008

There has been some talk lately that blogging (as an activity) has declined in recent years in favour of Facebook, Twitter and other forms of tagging/microblogging. These new platforms add even more chatter to the litterally millions of active blogs so the signal to noise ratio makes getting new blogs noticed a real challenge. [...]

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Thursday, February 14th, 2008

From a Reuter’s article yesterday on Valentine’s Day in Thailand:
The annual campaign to ensure good behavior on February 14 will see city officials turn on all lights at public parks in the capital Bangkok, while parents are urged to make sure their teenagers come home early.
Wow. That’ll stop sex dead in its tracks. If only [...]

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