Photograph by Susan Porter
I saw a tweet the other day which said try saying No by default to help you focus on what’s important. It’s a fair point but it really goes against the grain for me. Sure there may be some unintended stuff along the way but at least there are consequences! For me that’s part of the adventure. Moreover, mix that Yes attitude with the power of social media and prepare yourself for a roller-coaster.
Take my band for example; Simon asked me if I’d like to learn the bass guitar and start a band to play at his 40th birthday. I leapt at the opportunity and now 5 years on we’re the proud owners of a Banksy original, so how you might ask has that happened. Well, when we started we played at a few outdoor events and I put the footage up on YouTube. In the meantime, and by complete coincidence, Banksy painted a picture with the same name as ours – Exit Through The Gift Shop. We thought nothing of it until he decided to make a film of the same name and contacted me on YouTube. He was very genuine and polite and wondered if we’d change our name. We considered it for a while, agreed and asked him to help us choose our new name. I think he quite got into the idea and picked a new name for us from a couple of alternatives and to thank us for being so accommodating then painted us a new backdrop for us to display at our gigs. True to his word he delivered us a stunning 8ft x 6ft canvas backdrop of the grim reaper driving a bumper car with our new name on it!
If you’d like to come and see it (well a copy) and find out our new name we’re unveiling it at the St Georges Day event ‘What England Means to Me’ this Friday at the Market Place in Brentford. Come along at about 6.30pm.
Posted in ethos, general
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By
darren
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Published
April 21, 2010
It might not seem like there is a lot going on at Cofacio right now, but the complete opposite is true. We’ve spent the last few months, working on building the next revision of the site and it is very nearly ready.
We’ve been busy innovating, testing concepts, having meetings with Charities and Companies, and talking to our users. Currently there are a few invited users who are hammering through all the areas of the site catching all the bugs and gremlins, for me and our developers to stamp on. Once we’ve completed this final ’safety’ check we’ll start sending out emails and invites to everyone who previously used the site. Just to give you a feel for the amount of effort we’ve been putting in – our developers have carried out about 1000 code changes this year!
The great thing is that the feedback has been really positive from the testers and we’re secretly bouncing up and down at the thought of launching Cofacio The Help Engine. This is just the start!
By
darren
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Published
April 16, 2010
I’ve just finished reading James May’s article at the end of the Motoring section in the Telegraph. He’s trying to research the best type of Ferrari to buy and he’s been on the internet – which he calls the “Web of Lies”.
He’s struggling to find consensus on whether or not the Ferrari he is interested in is any good – he’s read some articles that say it’s got great ergonomics and some that say the opposite, you have to take the car apart every few months to fix it and some that say it can be fixed by anyone. He’s certainly confused.
So what does he do to help him make a decision?
He asks his readers. (He previously did the same thing when he couldn’t work out why his old motorbike wasn’t working.)
Guess what?
He always gets the answer.
Of course we don’t all have a column with a readership of millions; however if you post your question or problem on Cofacio, we’ll get it out there and find you the answer you need from other humans too – as James May has found out it’s more reliable and more fun too. Give it a go!
By
darren
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Published
October 25, 2009
So now you all know what we’ve been up to for the last month here’s the beta version of Cofacio. It’s version 1 of many so do please try the site, bear with us if you find any imperfections and recommend it to others if you like the idea.
The idea of the site is simple, find others who are looking for the same as you, because:
- It’s fun
- It’s social
- It could be helpful
- You might meet some interesting people
- You’ll be able to find out stuff that people know but don’t write down
- You can vent your frustration and have a rant when you can’t find what you’re looking for
At this stage, please do treat the site as a bit of fun. Our biggest challenge is to populate the site with lots of searches and comments so please do search for, and comment on, as many things as you can think of. If you looked for others in Cofacio every time you searched for something in Google you’d be amazed at how many times you and other people look for the same or similar things.
We’re going to be giving away a £25 Amazon voucher to the most fun and popular post this month as a small way of showing our gratitude so please do have a go.
So, a big thanks to all of you for showing an interest and taking the time to try the site. We hope you like Cofacio and find it both useful and entertaining. Any feedback on improvements and other more suitable business ideas would be more than welcome.
Sim and Darren
By
darren
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Published
September 9, 2009
We’re big fans of Malcolm Gladwell’s book the Tipping Point – it’s a business book that’s also a geat read. There are a number of aspects in his book that caught our attention and imagination – the secrets of Sesame Streets success, and the story of why Zero Tolerance works in society are just two. The one that I really feel for is 150.
150 is the number of humans in a group that will function and thrive as a community, and according to Robin Dunbar’s research it’s all related to the size of the neocortex in our brains – other animals function better in smaller groups because they have a smaller neocortex. Both Dunbar and Gladwell reference an interesting organisation called Gore Associates, famous worldwide for their water proof breathable fabric (and in this house their bendy toothpicks). Reading about Gore really inspired me, in Gore there are no bosses, or job titles, everyone is just ‘an Associate’. There isn’t really any top-down strategy (and definitely no powerpoint or white boards). The way Gore works is to build a plant that is big enough for 150 associates and then they get on with being a successful business. Maintaining the plants with under 150 employees means that managing the company strategy and ethos is more effective – it’s managed by human relationship and peer pressure, not by top-down instruction (or even company songs).
Cofacio right now is rather smaller than 150 but we have been influenced by this story and hope to reflect it in our ethos and in the way the website community works (12 is quite important too).
By
darren
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Published
August 26, 2009
I’m really honoured to be writing the first post for Cofacio. We’re currently busy working away behind the scenes to get our exciting new web site ready for you all. We’re working all hours at the internal testing stage of development, hoping to release to our first registered users within two weeks from today. Please have a read of the about page, sign up to be alerted when we’re ready, and get in touch to let us know what you think of our idea and our design.
If you’d like to help us out too then please tell your friends a little about what we are up to and direct them to our pre-launch page.
You can find us on Twitter, and Email, or by telephone on +44 203 417 6308. (Skype, Facebook and LinkedIn coming soon).
It’s all about the conversation, and we’d love to hear from you!
Posted in general, launch
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By
darren
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Published
August 12, 2009
