LIFT07 is over, and its hard to imagine.  Laurent did a superb job of not orchestrating what people should talk about.  The approach was open, and very engaging.  The chatter was non stop.  The presentations, and panels, were just plain thought provoking.  Scoble makes a couple of great points.  Who needs vendor booths at conferences.  They all have web sites. At LIFT some obscure and different people, we or at least I would never have otherwise seen.  Sampo Karjalainen speaking about Habbo.  I’ll bet few North Americans have heard of them.  Habbo has 7.5 million active users.  Think Second Life in … Continue reading LIFT07 – thoughts and relevance to Banking

 Really nice post summarising the thoughts of one person from LIFT. Spaces. Spaces that allow certain things to happen. Spaces that foster people doing things. Spaces that set up the environment. Source: InVisible Blog » Lift 07 – connecting the dots   Technorati tags: LIFT07 Continue reading Lift 07 – Spaces

Great start to the day.  Am hooked up in a cafe at Zurich airport, while wife shops.  The conference attendees have been provided complimentary hotspot access via Swisscom, and courtesy of Whisher.  Feran Moreno personally sent that over, which I thought a nice touch. The Whisher network is powered by users sharing their WiFi. All WiFi networks registered through Whisher are protected and the owners (sharers) have full control on who and when can access them. Whisher is an interesting concept that has been talked about for years, but this is the first big implementation I have seen. Whisher launched … Continue reading Whisher network, via Swisscom

Looking forward to the weather in Geneva if nothing else.  Its horrible in Toronto right now.  It will be a 25 degree increase in temperature for us.  its +12C there today. First thing Wednesday is a workshop on ‘Designing the future’.  Then off to the Peter Mueller Watch factory in the PM for a private visit.  Conference proper begins Thursday, and I am on at 17:00.  There is a no laptop rule, so blogging might be spotty, from BlackBerry, or in the evenings.  But I will take lots of notes.    Technorati tags: LIFT07 Continue reading Off to LIFT 07

 Rather eye opening study here from MIT.  The premise is that site-authentication images increase security because customers will not enter their passwords if they do not see the correct image, said Stuart Schechter, a computer scientist at the M.I.T. Lincoln Laboratory.  From the study we learned that the premise is right less than 10 percent of the time. Source: Study Finds Security Flaws on Web Sites of Major Banks – New York Times It will be interesting to see the responses of those Banks’ that use PassMark.  My first question is ‘ who commissioned the study?’.  This may provide some … Continue reading MIT/ Harvard study raises questions about use of pictures to visually validate sites to customers

There is famous scientist from Microsoft, Computer science icon Jim Gray, lost at sea.  I don’t know him, but many do, and look at this effort from Amazon, and others to pull web users everywhere into the search.  Through a major effort by many people we were able to have the Digital Globe satellite make a run over the area on Thursday morning and have the data made available publicly. We have split these images into smaller tiles that can be easily scanned visually and stored into the Amazon S3 storage service. We then created tasks for reviewing these images and … Continue reading All Things Distributed: Help Find Jim Gray

Following up on the Bank of America money management tool post, a BofA customer writes: I’m a BofA customer, and I went online yesterday to see what they were bringing to the table.  Their money management functionality is HORRIBLE.  After 10 minutes of putzing around with it, I could only guess that the only thing it actually does is categorize your spending and investments — but I couldn’t get it to that. And I won’t be trying again. I paraphrase here, but not by much.  Doesn’t sound positive.  It sounds like BofA have plugged in a purchased solution, and dare I … Continue reading BofA money management tool disappoints

RBC have implemented Google Maps for their Branch and ATM locator.  This is (I believe) a first, in Canada, and perhaps anywhere.  Kudos to RBC for that.  RBC Royal Bank Branch and ATM Locator Source: RBC Royal Bank – Branch and ATM Locator Suggestion to RBC …. don’t clear the fields if I missed something – retain what I typed, and let me add the part you needed, rather than make me type it all over again.   Technorati tags: Banks+locator, google+maps Continue reading RBC Royal Bank – Branch and ATM Locator

 The UFirst Credit Union Board have started a blog, and its a great start.  Its timely, relevant, and is up to date.  Comments are being commented on quickly, (rule #1), and in this case, by the authors within an hour.  UFirst is located in Plattsburg new York, and as far as I can tell has one office.  So this is a classic local bank, and blogs are an idea forum to speak to the local people, from your local CU.  (Hat tip Netbanker) The Boardcast The latest news and announcements from the UFirst Federal Credit Union Board of Directors. Source: The … Continue reading The Boardcast – UFirst, Plattsburg goes live with a real blog!

 News that has been expected arrived today, with the sale of Egg. Citigroup (NYSE: C – News) today announced it has reached an agreement to acquire 100% ownership of Egg Banking plc (Egg), the world’s largest pure online bank and one of the UK’s leading online financial services providers, from Prudential PLC for GBP 575 million, or approximately $1.127 billion*, in cash, subject to adjustments at closing. The transaction is expected to be accretive in its first year. The purchase includes over three million Egg customers, and products and services including online payment and account aggregation services, credit cards, personal … Continue reading Citigroup to Acquire Egg Banking plc from Prudential PLC: Financial News – Yahoo! Finance