Web/Tech

MESH – update 3

Colin Henderson

Last presentation at MESH and I am listening to Matt from WordPress speak about his philosphy.  There are five people in the company, supporting 187,000 blogs, including this one.  Every customer feedback goes to every employee, and they are obsessed with ensuring the interface is as intuitive as possible. His partner on the panel is Chris Messina, and he is speaking of software as being too complex, and being all about making is less, and making it act as expected at every opportunity.  He is talking about microformats, that will solve very basic problems for software users on the web.  … Continue reading MESH – update 3

AI

Whitepaper on the New Marketing

Colin Henderson

Excellent discussion of the evolution of marketing in the Web 2.0 era, of blogs, and social networks. Marqui – Marqui Whitepaper Downloads The evolution of technology has caused a fundamental power shift in consumer behavior. Thus, businesses that wish to maintain their competitive edge must rethink the way they market. This paper offers an introduction to the concept of Marketing 2.0 and provides advice to marketers looking to understand and succeed in the new “invisible” domain. Relevance to Bankwatch:Understanding the new world requires much thought, and iterative change for Banks.  This paper provides excellent context, and some ideas suggestions. Technorati … Continue reading Whitepaper on the New Marketing

Innovation

New Marketing 2 – MESH

Colin Henderson

Just watched Tara do her thing.  It would not do it justice to call it a presentation – it was a fabulous example of creating interaction, and discussion, and it hit the right level of powerpoint, video, and conversation.  Her piece is well covered here at random thoughts. Some key points she made, and spoke eloquently and passionately about were inbound, rather than outbound messages making tools available for a community, then getting out of the way being part of the community, not a tourist being 100% authentic advocating FOR your community to your company rather than the other way … Continue reading New Marketing 2 – MESH

AI1 Comment

New Marketing – MESH

Colin Henderson

Steve Rubel made some interesting points about marketing in the Web 2.0 world.  its not a replacement for traditional marketing incremental effort is required to adopt the new marketing there are new skills required, to listen and engage with the influencers in the blogging community potential metrics are: conversations engagement with influencers touchpoints with influencers inbound links much discussion about character blogs traditional marketers say they are good Steve says bad I say bad .. they are telling a message ” I talk, you listen” Technorati Tags: mesh_conference Continue reading New Marketing – MESH

Web/Tech

The benefits of Service Oriented Architecture (SOA)

Colin Henderson

Article from FinanceTech describes the benefits that Banks really need, and that should come from SOA.  The article is not too technical, and its something Banks really need to get handle on, to get out of the legacy system problem most have.  In addition, its a way to get through merger amalgamations of technology. Service Oriented Change Web services are gaining more attention thanks to growing interest in service-oriented architecture (SOA): a collection of self-contained services that communicate with each other and perform business processes through defined description languages or standards. This architectural strategy is a services layer, or interface, … Continue reading The benefits of Service Oriented Architecture (SOA)

AI

MESH Day 1 themes

Colin Henderson

Web 2.0 is regarded by many as a solution, looking for a problem lots of questions, I would characterise as Long Tailish – are new markets being created, or canabilising old ones Netwrok effect of creating new groups, solidifying opinions, and views economic model of blogging – much too much talk abut monetisation, metrics Om spoke eloquently about blogging putting a personal face on corporations, such as Scoble Disruption: lots still truing to fit new models into old thinking Om again – blogs provide context MESH Technorati Tags: mesh conference, toronto Continue reading MESH Day 1 themes

AI

THE PERFECT MARK – a sobering, detailed description of email fraud

Colin Henderson

Worth reading for everyone, and all bankers, just to understand the human dimension of internet fraud.

The New Yorker: Fact

How a Massachusetts psychotherapist fell for a Nigerian e-mail scam.

The true irony is that the credulous American here is the only one who went to jail.  His trust in 'God' and belief in the "poor" Nigerian people he was dealing with ruined him, and his family.  He was a 57 years old, churchgoing veteran.  The Banks lost in this too, because of the bad cheques for several hundred thousand, that Worley negotiated.

The trial took six days, and the jury found Worley guilty on all counts. On February 15th, Worley, now sixty-two, returned to the federal courthouse at the edge of Boston Harbor to face sentencing. 

Continue reading “THE PERFECT MARK – a sobering, detailed description of email fraud”

Business Models, Payments, US

Wal-Mart can cancel banks’ store leases

Colin Henderson

Wal-Mart is engaged in a major battle with the US Banks at Senate hearings. Wal-Mart can cancel banks’ store leases Wal-Mart is seeking FDIC approval to open a special type of bank in Utah called an industrial bank. A range of opponents, from local banks to farmers to unions, testified for three days last month that Wal-Mart was really aiming to get into general banking services and argued this would be bad for local economies Wal-Mart is interested in ensuring it controls the costs along its entire value chain, a smart trend that all companies think about, such as Home … Continue reading Wal-Mart can cancel banks’ store leases

Payments, US

“Best Clearing” – image technology and ACH to optimize cost and accelerate adoption

Colin Henderson

Courtesy of Payment News, the topic of payment convergence appeared at the NACHA conference. Payments News: NACHA’s Take on the Future of Payments: Convergence – May 11, 2006 “Best Clearing” was described as using a combination of image technology and the ACH system to optimize cost and accelerate adoption of electronic processing of checks. Checks would be imaged by the collecting bank, stored locally, and then cleared through the ACH system. Images would be made available by collecting banks through some kind of standardized access model and not stored twice as they are today (once by the bank of first … Continue reading “Best Clearing” – image technology and ACH to optimize cost and accelerate adoption

AI

Home Depot buys a Bank

Colin Henderson

This purchase is directly tied to facilitate the value chain for their customers. By making the contractor financing easier this will attract more business for the chain. Ideas & Screening | Reuters.com This approach is distinct in several respects. Consumers would get easy access to lenders who have specialized understanding of the home improvement market. Local contractors would no longer have to watch passively as consumers wrestle with issues relating to whether they will or won't be able to finance their projects. And the intervention of a reputable third party could alleviate frequent tensions between contractors and customers over the … Continue reading Home Depot buys a Bank