The End of Retirement – a few comments

I was reading The Economists special report on ageing in the latest print edition of the magazine (or I should say newspaper) over the weekend. The leader is titled The End of Retirement – not sure I like that tag line. The report as you would expect from the Economist was interesting and though provoking, however it didn’t seem to give any cutting ideas or open a debate on how we might reboot retirement in the 21st century.

Now I am long way from being ready (or wealthy enough) to retire but I am taking a mini-retirement this summer in a style of life hacker Tim Ferris would be proud of. Anyway. lets not gloat about by 8 weeks with the kids and that beach house for now. I am also not clever enough to offer up a 10 point plan on how we should (at least in the developed western nations) look to reboot or rethink retirement just yet. But this is a topic I am interested in thinking about some more. For now here’s what stuck me when reading the Economist report:

More people should look at mini-retirements now. Actually maybe I don’t want to give this one away?! This would go well with the proposal or reality that more people will need to work longer. Anyway, the data says we should live longer if we work and stay engaged later in life. Maybe we can get some sponsorship here.

Work-life balance is not anywhere near where it needs to be – yet. Seems to me if the balance can be smoothed out over one’s lifetime then that would help finance the ’retirement’ phase in people’s live. I think this is an area where some government schemes could come in handy. I am not thinking socialist style but maybe something like a ‘retirement’ credit account that you can tap into early to cover you for certain things and payback later (with all the tax benefits of a pension etc). Perhaps we need look more at how to structure parental and compassionate leave schemes and flexible working with a long term view. Once the kids are gone we can all put in more hours at the office then. Let’s get more thinking going around this area

I am already assuming that any state pension I get is beer money at best and I am pretty sure others in my generation are making similar plans. I am not sure private pension run by bankers are going to be the answer. So would be a good idea for there to be other tax break schemes around in this area. Need some beta programs or even prototypes. Maybe ‘private’ programs to share holiday homes or autos when we retire could help. Let’s get some entrepreneurs thinking about how make that a business.

My last comment is The Economist point out that the prediction is for labor shortages in rich nations in the coming decades. I am note sure I see this. I am more worried we continue to get real good at automating things and that we need less workers overall in the economy. Now that’s scary unless we radically rethink retirement, economics and the wider role government needs to play.

Bookmeetingroom.com – useful Web 2.0 app

Bookmeetingroom.com came to me via my ‘virtual’ inbox and looks to be a pretty useful Web 2.0 service. I am guessing with future cost saving in mind and more remote working this kind of service/app could take off.My only comment is does it/how easy to integrate with email service (like gmail, etc)? And is there a Facebook plug-in the works?

From the website:

• Simplify Meeting Room Reservations. Instant booking of meeting rooms, conference rooms, studios and other facilities.
• Self Service. Allow self-service booking by all staff or/and clients and reduce administration overhead and costs.
• Eliminate Double booking. Real time availability checking and booking removes the potential for scheduling conflicts.
• Generate Reports. Track room utilisation, by person, dept, company and user. Generate itemised usage and cost reports.
• Total Control and Security. Comprehensive rights management and administration controls. Easy to use and intuitive.

Executricks… Or How to Retire While You’re Still Working

Ok, I am adding this to my holiday reading list for the summer (only 6 days until its time a full week of holiday – let the count down begin!). Let’s just say it sounds  like a no-brainer to read this one (gosh I hope my boss is NOT reading my blog…). The author Stanley Big has pretty readable blog over in CNN.

Xobni Rocks

I finally installed Xobni on my Outlook at work. This plug-in was reccommended by a couple friends awhile back here on Razorshine and by SB, hey I am slow but I finally got there. Anyway, plain and simply this plug-in rocks! It has productivity gains, is fast, great search & navigation, easy to use and has cool analytics which are both userful and fun. Try it, use it, love it.

Unconferences – maybe we apply some of this to Wax?

I read about the “unconference” movement about a year ago – but I have yet to attend one. Although, many of more local or smaller events such as mashup event etc apply a similar ethos or style. i like the vibe of:

• No passive attendees
• No pitching
• All Q&A all the time
• Debate
• Share what really works and what doesn’t

Anyway, I’ve helped organize 3 invitation only insider search summits (with no conference fees) and we are now looking to organize a new break away event later this year. So, I was hunting around for ideas and this led me back to the unconferences for inspiration on ways to run a conference (the facilitation links on wiki are good). I’d like to get input in the good and the bad of conferences (or summits) – so comments please!

The Wax (which is a code name) will be a small (25 people), intense but and fun! So, far we know it will involve a flash keynote (or Lightning Talk), speed dating, a debate, adventure activity (think safari) and knowledge cafe. The participants will have to travel far to get there so everyone will be fully engaged. What else should we do? Maybe a demo lab and a fishbowl (instead of the debate or in addition)? Right, I need to get back to working on the outline and then time to book that safari.

UPDATE: From “The father of modern-day content distribution.”  here is some more support – Rethinking the conference - for following this type of format for all conferences.

Suggestions to LinkedIn – things to add to the product

First off, I am a big fan of LinkedIn. I love the site. I use it tons. It adds value to my professional life. However, LinkedIn needs to start taking the product (or service) a little more serious and start building out more functionality. Here my initial set of suggestions:

1. The news feeds on a users homepage are weak. Make them better. Make them more relevant and please make it possible (or at least abvious) how to customize.
2. Groups – lets take this area and make it a business tool. Add in better email group functions. Add in a private area for sharing docs (maybe a wiki or sharepoint lite). And charge money for the advanced features.
3. The “Who’s Viewed My Profile” section is another one to develop out. Think of it like nano site analytics!

Right that’s enough for now. Does anyone else have suggestions for LinkedIn? If so please post a comment.

Beer Viking is back

New look and new content over on sister site BeerViking. Worth a read just for fun – adding it to the blogroll.

RateBeer – this is both fun & useful!

Thanks to LifeHacker I was pointed to RateBeer the other day. RateBeer is a good site with a really simply concept. Let people rate beer! Love it… In order to pad out this post here is the “about us” blurb from RateBeer:

RateBeer is widely recognized as the most accurate and *most-visited source for beer information. RateBeer is an independent world site for craft beer enthusiasts and is dedicated to serving the entire craft beer community through beer education, promotion and outreach.

RateBeer was founded in May 2000 by Bill Buchanan as a forum for beer lovers to come together and share their opinions of beer and breweries. Established and maintained by dedicated volunteers, RateBeer has become the premier resource for consumer-driven beer ratings, features on beer culture and industry events, weekly beer-related editorials, and an internationally recognized, semi-annual RateBeer Best competition. The community now has thousands of members from more than 60 countries who have rated tens of thousands of beers from around the world. Our mission is to provide independent, unbiased, consumer-driven information about beer and breweries and to enhance the image and worldwide appreciation of beer.

This also reminds me that simple ideas are often the best one. Which should be simple enough to remember but easy to forget… Hey, I know what was I doing reading Lifehacker? Well its sort of the Heat magazine of the blogosphere and even I like a little mind numbing brain candy.

Change This – cool site

I was reading Gapingvoid today as I was surprised to see he quit Twitter. Maybe there really is a trend toward real social networking? Anyway for this post I found kmy way to ChangeThis – an entire site of manifestos.

ChangeThis: is creating a new kind of media. A form of media that uses existing tools (like PDFs, blogs and the web) to challenge the way ideas are created and spread. We’re on a mission to spread important ideas and change minds.

Lots of cool content on this site. I think this will provide some good reading on my train trips over the next few weeks…

Google’s Zurich Offices – nice place to work

I think working at Google’s Zurich offices would be very cool. Check out this fun video tour over on the BBC!