David Webster

Intro Back in 2001 Steve Ross-Talbot wrote an article entitled A day in the Life of Ivan Eyepack.  This was the story of how in 2001 someone equipped with a Compaq Ipaq would live in a connected world.  The star of that story was very much the device.  Now we have much more powerful devices and more choice - but surprisingly the starring role has moved to the ‘cloud' - services on the internet. Recently Microsoft announced Live Mesh, filling in a vital missing piece of the puzzle and ushering in a whole range of cloud based services. In this article I revisit Ivan in 2009.  Everything described in this updated story is possible with technology available now or in a few months.  If someone were so inclined they could start building this today. Buying a ticket on the Mac Ivan now lives outside Utrecht in the Netherlands with his wife Olga and daughter Daniella.  He has a... (more)

On Leaving Microsoft

After working for Microsoft for 15 years I have finally moved on to another company - Cognizant!In many ways this company reminds me of Microsoft in the early 90's, eager and hungry for business with superb talent.  Its going to be fun!But leaving a place that has been home for 15 years is a little sad.  My best memories are the random silly things - like during a company meeting in some huge auditorium during Bill Gates' keynote my mate Steve suddenly asks me if I have ever seen Spongebob Squarepants.  Poor Bill was no contest for Patrick,  Squidward and the sponge - we were soo... (more)

Spotify - can it survive and prosper

A while back I gave  talk at the Financial Times conference on digital media.  One company I suggested that we all watch is spotify an online free juke box supported by subscription or advertising.  I suggested that it could 'take on free' and win. I still think so but I need to qualify a bit more.If you want some music, any music then you will find it for free.  When no one is looking you can run audio hijack and copy tunes streaming from YouTube and add them to your mp3 player - all for nothing.  We have a massive music listening population that essentially values the raw conte... (more)

Ivan Eyepack 2009

Intro Back in 2001 Steve Ross-Talbot wrote an article entitled A day in the Life of Ivan Eyepack. This was the story of how in 2001 someone equipped with a Compaq Ipaq would live in a connected world. The star of that story was very much the device. Now we have much more powerful devices and more choice – but surprisingly the starring role has moved to the ‘cloud’ – services on the internet. Recently Microsoft announced Live Mesh, filling in a vital missing piece of the puzzle and ushering in a whole range of cloud based services. In this article I revisit Ivan in 2009. Everything ... (more)

Music and the generations

My mum used to be horrified at Mick Jagger.  He was the worst possible influence for young people, long hair, drugs and noisy music.Well now many years on I find myself working in mum's house with BBC Radio 2 playing - the Rolling Stones.  Mums is humming Jumping Jack Flash.  I mean, Sir Mick Jagger, Radio 2, what happened to the generation gap?At home I fire up Spotify with the kids and we play anything from Girls Aloud to Johnny Cash - often my son will pick up the melody on the piano and I will play with him on the Alto Sax.Music is just not the generational identifier anymore... (more)