CHERRY-RIPE, ripe, ripe, I cry,
Full ones and fair ones, come and buy
How are you reading this? Are you scanning it on an Apple or a PC or a netbook? Or did you pull it up on an iPhone or 3G phone? Did you find it through following a link on our website, or was it through a status change on Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn? Or are you tracking my blog through some other system? Perhaps your secretary printed it out for you?
The chances are that whatever information and communication technology you used to retrieve this blog, you will have built up a loyalty to that system. Friends of mine announce that they are joining the iPhone tribe, or point out the virtues of Apple's low level of computer viruses, or the immediacy of Twitter's feed. We spend a lot of money on these devices, and we socialise around them. Like the singers auditioning for The Commitments, we form into tribes around these technology choices. And the communications technologies themselves try hard to help us do just that. LinkedIn users find it easier to link to other LinkedIn users, iPhone applications are shared between iPhone owners... All of that socialising and sharing is what creates so much value around little pieces of plastic and silicon which we feel we must plug in to recharge each day. Whole industries of telecommunications and consumer electronics are funded by our tribal loyalties to devices.
Last night I spent time with some amazing people who really know what device and service you will use next. Electronics companies like ARM, whose microchip designs are inside all of the devices listed above and pretty much all computers that we use day to day, aside from a few PCs. Software companies like Red Gate whose SQL database tools allow developers to quickly improve and change the data displayed. Consultancies like Sagentia, whose recent design and introduction of M-Pesa for Vodafone in Kenya 18 months ago has resulted in 4 million users for quick, low cost mobile payment, with new rollouts now happening in developing markets around the world. The technical foresight of these companies wins a rent for Cambridge region from the huge global market for information and communication technologies. Yet their brands are generally almost unknown.
At the same dinner were executives whose brands you would instantly recognise. Johnson Mathey, whose catalysts power your car. Philips, whose healthcare and lifestyle devices you will find in your living room and your hospital. Nokia, whose original collaboration with ARM to develop a low power mobile phone microchip sparked the huge explosion in the use of mobile devices described above. Microsoft, whose operating systems and applications made it the top brand in the UK this year. The Universities of Anglia Ruskin and Cambridge, whose renowned research and teaching bring talented people from all over the world to the region and help them get a good job afterwards.
All of these amazing organizations (and many more who I omit for sake of space!) are Founders of Cambridge Network. They fund a large proportion of our online newspaper that sends 16,700+ users from 6,500+ organisations weekly news and jobs offers from Hi Tech and Services companies across the Greater South East. They lead Special Interest Groups organizing events for our 1,000+ Member companies on markets like cleantech and healthcare or functions like HR, finance and sales. A lot of people are interested in what these companies have to say. For example, one Healthcare event capped at 60 people has already received over 1,180 web hits. Thank goodness the session will be available on video archive for all the disappointed late-comers! Healthcare startups such as Biotronics3d and Ixico attending from London will gain a real insight and get the chance to position their own products with some of the largest spenders on healthcare innovation in the UK. Yet there will be no direct cash benefit to the Healthcare SIG leaders Mills & Reeve, Philips and TTP who are funding the series of events.
Why would successful companies who clearly know their own markets waste time and money on altruism, helping little companies who may compete with them? Technology is their stock in trade, why would they collocate with potential competitors who may steal their staff or their insights? Why cooperate with those they compete with day to day? Well, it turns out that co-opetition of this kind is common. A glance at the map of medieval London shows names like Oat Lane, Milk Street, Wood Street, Poultry, Change Lane, where experts in those commodities gathered. Clients and apprentices knew where to come to. And the guilds that identified master craftsmen and elected a Lord Mayor to represent their interests live on, although strangely transformed into Financial Services clubs. Our modern Founder members are part of a tradition of craftsmen organising themselves.
So whatever tribe you belong to, you will be welcome in Cambridge. You're using our technology, and we love our users.
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