Graham's Blog

VRM and Green Energy

Last week was one of those rare occasions when I couldn't resist 'phoning in' to Julian Worricker on You & Yours on Radio 4 to put in my fourpenneth about energy conservation.

I proposed that the 50,000 new homes a year, that this government has promised, should ALL include solar panels (photo voltaic) not only to provide their power needs but also to feedback into the National Grid. This would soon equate to a Nuclear Power Station and the mass production would substantially reduce the cost (and promised subsidies from the tax payer) of providing solar panels for existing homes.

Surely a far better use of the experienced engineering skills we have in the country rather than subsidising the cost of manufacturing vehicles which consume more energy and produce more CO² during manufacture than that saved by running a new car on tap water. How crazy are we, the tax payer, to pay £2,000 for people to scrap their 10 year old cars (like mine) in order to 'consume' a new car which will spend 95% of it's time stationary? We should be incentivising  drivers to 'keep and repair' their vehicles to reduce CO² emissions and generate employment for mechanics.

It was interesting that Lord Hunt's concern was that Power Stations are designed to provide energy to individuals NOT to have energy provided by individuals. Sounds like an ideal 'Green VRM' project to me!

Every little bit of data helps Tesco rule retail

Are you happy to read that Tesco track the shopping habits of 16 million families across Britain? That's one in two households providing 6 million transactions a day revealing such information as whether they have a baby, a pet or can't cook.  Would you like a copy of the data they 'harvest' from your Clubcard transactions?

Your data is sold to companies such as Coca-Cola, Nestle and Unilever?  Did you agree to that?  Do you receive any of that fee?

And who do they sell it on to?  Does it surprise you that the personal information of the average UK adult ends up being stored in over 1,000 data silos around the world?  Is it any wonder that your data ends up in the wrong hands who, at best, can bombard you with spam and junk mail or, at worst, impersonate you causing financial and reputational loss?

If you would like to believe that 'the customer is king' then you need to take back control and responsibility for your personal information. Your Personal Information, secure 'under your control, with your consent, for your benefit'.

Doc advocating VRM

Doc Searls is the ambassador for VRM as the reciprocal to CRM. You can read his very comprehensive article at MyCustomer.com.

His views resonate with previous articles published by MyCustomer.com in July 2004, April 2005 and July 2006. Earlier this year I blogged The Credibility Gap referring to an article in Business Week about the benefits to organisations of embracing this development.

I also believe that the 'trust' in the 'global village' concept has been shaken by the effect of the collapse of the global economy and detect a huge surge of interest in downsizing back to supporting the local community. The benefits to both the individual and the extremely important SME's (Small and Medium Enterprises - under 50 employees) are significant given that SME's generate 80% of UK GDP, 80% of their customers live within 30 miles and 80% of the population live within 30 miles of their place of birth.

The VRM tools and services provided by PAOGA can support this initiative by working with all local suppliers and services (Local Authority, NHS Trust, Transport, Banks, Education, Clubs, Shops, Manufacturers, Service Providers etc.) to provide an homogenised service to their community generating a healthy local economy. The proposed decentralisation of authority and responsibility from central government to local authorities would be a welcome move improving the accountability of all concerned.

Byte Night 'boosts' homeless

An additional 700 people joined the 76,000 under 25's who slept 'rough' on Friday night thanks to Byte Night, founded 10 years ago by Ken Deeks and James Bennet to raise money for Action for Children.

Once again, we gathered our sleeping bags and slept under the stars for the night to remind ourselves just how uncomfortable it is to face the elements. I was with the Thames Valley group and we were lucky with the weather - it was cloudy but dry. The Edinburgh group really earned their sponsorship as they suffered rain and gale force winds. That said, we enjoyed a good meal (thanks Oracle), were fortified by decent wine and slipped into warm sleeping bags in a safe location with tea and coffee available through the night. We were woken at 6am to the smell of bacon rolls and coffee. Not really much like the circumstances that the other 76,000 faced on Friday night and look forward to every night throughout the winter. Many of them spent the night cold, hungry and scared.

One of the key aspects of the evening is listening to the harrowing stories of how these youngsters find themselves on the street through no fault of their own following family breakdown or abuse which, in these difficult financial times, are getting worse. So I make no apologies for asking you again to dig deep and contribute to this worthy cause at www.justgiving.com/paoga because, no matter how tight your finances are at the moment, you are warm, fed and safe by comparison. Your support will really help and be truly appreciated. Many thanks.