This particular contract had an interesting set of technical challenges to overcome. There is no 3G mobile phone coverage and limited 2G coverage (i.e. no coverage in some places). The client wanted to be able to guide visitors to accommodation, attractions and restaurants across a huge geographic area and therefore location-relevant results were required. Up to date information is essential, particularly for special offers and events.

We addressed these challenges through load balancing data. Pre-loading all the data was not an option – it would rapidly become out of date and, in any case, the volume of data would have meant that the app would have to have been downloaded over WiFi (an Apple restriction) rather than anywhere with a mobile signal. Instead the app gradually populates with information, always looking for the latest information if it can get it.

You can download the application from the app store for free. Search for “Cairngorms”.

Google Street View provides 360° horizontal and 290° vertical panoramic street level views and can be accessed by via Google Maps and Google Earth. As the services are rolled out, it will provide an important additional resource for urban Screen Agencies and film makers – offering high resolution photography of frontages and streets from almost every town in the UK. Streetview can also be integrated, where available, with web brochures produced by the MovieSite system.

The Museo Nacional del Prado has created “Masterpieces” on Google Earth, enabling users of the application to zoom in to the Museum on a map. However, it goes a step further – you can enter the building and view high resolution images.

As Stephen points out, the potential for using Google Earth for film locations is huge: both for marketing and for film tourism. Some ideas:

- Take advantage of Google Earth’s ability to display photographs of locations on a map, and set up a tour of recommended locations for an enquiry. This could be the next generation of web brochure, available now.

- Add links to film trailers, film publicity stills and location shots, and allow users to fly across your region stopping when something is of interest.

- Create links from Google Earth back to your locations database.

MovieSite supports custom integration with Google Earth. Contact David Sim for further information.

It is believed over 2 million computers have been infected by the virus. Around 10,000 web sites have been compromised – visiting them could infect a PC  with the virus.

All users of Internet Explorer – 5, 6, 7 and 8 – should apply the patch when available.

We also recommend that in the meantime IE users immediately discontinue its use and switch to a different web browser such as Firefox:  Find it at http://getfirefox.com/. All Open Brolly sites and web products are Firefox compatible.

Read more:

Microsoft Issues Emergency Security Patch For IE – PC World.

Byte the Bullet is underpinned by technology, but it will be led by a focus on business success. To help strategic planning in participating organisations, we will be using the Balanced Scorecard approach.

We take the view that strategic planning should not be an academic exercise; it should be a driver in the organisation that everyone is able to sign up to, a tool that have an positive impact every day.

Developed in the early 1990s at Harvard Business School, the Balanced Scorecard considers all aspects of a business. It is an essential starting point before investing in process change, marketing or technology. It clearly identifies routes to meeting business objectives and therefore focuses investment on areas that will have the most commercial impact.

It is balanced because it takes into account the different perspectives of a business, namely:

• Financial
• Customer
• Internal Processes
• Organisational, including learning and growth.

We collect data relating to each area and perspective of the business and develop metrics to assess current performance and which will lead future performance. The balanced scorecard answers key questions, like:

• Which customers should we focus on for maximum impact?
• What are our customer expectations?
• What financial outcomes are required from change?
• What processes do we need to excel at internally to meet demand for services?
• What do we need to do to continue to improve our service?

We strongly recommend that any business or public organisation wishing to develop its business so that it meets stated objectives considers using the Balanced Scorecard approach before investing in change.

Open Brolly can provide the skills and resources to cost-effectively review your organisation within an agreed budget. Contact David Sim on 01309 678100 or david.sim@openbrolly.com for more information.

The balanced scorecard methodology has been developed by Dr Jim Hamill, Director of Institute for Customer Advantage, University of Strathclyde Business School as part of the programme.

English band Radiohead have hit the headlines in recent weeks following their decision to offer their new album, “In Rainbows”, on the Internet. It is the first time a major artist has allowed consumers to name their price; to pay only what the album is worth to them. In some cases, consumers have paid nothing to receive the music.

The album has had some critical success and will still be sold in traditional online and offline music stores in due course.

Just how has the experiment gone?

Similar Models

The model is already being mimicked. Trent Reznor is founder and primary creative force behind the successful Grammy Award-winning industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails. He is releasing his new collaborative album with Saul Williams on the Internet for free, with an optional $5 contribution to “directly support the artists involved in the creation of this music”.

It will be interesting to watch this one: Williams and Reznor are not nearly as well known or played as Radiohead, and therefore their sales and exposure will be driven less by newspaper articles and more by Internet word of mouth.

Financial Success
$5 is also, perhaps not co-incidentally, the estimated average amount paid for the Radiohead album so far. While much less than its likely retail price, it represents roughly the figure a band could expect to receive from an album sale through a record label. Given sales have been around the 1.2 million mark, we can conclude they made around $6m in the first week. Not bad, even given a likely advance of around $5m from a record label for such a major band, and particularly given the implied creative freedom which has come as a result of this project.

Birth of the Free Music Model?
One thing the Internet has taught us is that it’s possible to make money giving things away. Linux is a computer operating system – a rival to Microsoft Windows. It can be downloaded freely, yet this single product has spawned a related software and support industry worth more than £30bn. Google allows free access to its search engine and services, because it makes big money on advertising.

Most of the money made by bands of all sizes comes from live concerts and tours. Could free music be the route to promotion and exposure, shared from iPod to iPod with the full support of the bands?

In the past Prince has given away music to everyone who attended his concerts. Madonna’s recent tour netted $200m, several times the net revenue of her successful Album, “Confessions on a Dance Floor”. Small bands have realised a t-shirt costs less to make than a CD yet can sell for twice as much – so why sell CDs at gigs?

Already thousands of independent artists have signed up to offer their music for free to podcasters to play on their radio shows through the Podsafe Music Network, simply to gain exposure. Record labels, meanwhile, have threatened to prosecute podcasters who play their music as they can’t afford royalties, missing a key market where listeners hang on their presenters’ choice of music.

Taste of The Future
Consumers have been wielding their power against the music industry. Music, technically just being small electronic files, has driven peer to peer file sharing networks.

Music industry estimates of the amount they’re losing through filesharing is wildly pessimistic – assuming that every track shared is a song which would have been bought. Nevertheless, it is clear that a thirst for unlimited, low cost, accessible music is out there.

Recently Universal and BMG have announced plans for subscription services – as much music as you can handle for a fixed monthly fee. It makes sense: research suggests that, on average, portable music player owners only buy 10 tracks of music during the lifetime of that product. Any recurring subscription – possibly built into mobile phone fees – has to better that.

The music industry won’t die, but it must evolve. Bands and fans are getting closer; the labels must decide where they fit into the relationship and add value.

Other participants include Julie Meyer, the co-founder of First Tuesday and Chief Executive of Ariadne Capital.

The seminar is part of the Breakfast, Lunch and Knowledge event at Horizon Scotland, Forres on 24 October 2007, from 7am to 2pm (although you don’t have to come to the whole thing). For further information, contact organisers Development Partners on 01463 710845. The event is free, funded by Highlands and Islands Enterprise Moray.

You can download the episode here: MP3 Audio File

More details here: World business