By contrast, I find myself heading to Pubcon next week in Las Vegas. Smack bang on he heart of Nevada’s desert – blistering heat and hardly any rainfall. Yet Sin City thrives. The hotels rise out of the ashen ground and water flows from the taps, supplied courtesy of the Hoover Damn.

Compare conditions in the Nevada Desert to those in Ethiopia – taken from the Oxfam blog:

There’s a women standing at the top of a hole in the ground – bright yellow jerry cans and donkeys surround her. There are nine other women down the hole she tells us… forming a human chain to bring water up from the bottom of a cave. They don’t need ropes because, “God has provided a ladder” – a series of rock-formed steps.

They walk all day to get there. They break their backs carrying the water back.

Living in these conditions, how can you expect Ethiopia to compete on a world stage? they can’t.

So I’m going to Vegas and I have a fun packed week of meetings and presentations. I’m also going to enter a poker tournament.

But when the tap water starts flowing like a little miracle out of the taps, think about the miracle that “God has provided a ladder” to the ladies of Ethiopia.

Charity shouldn’t always start at home… it should sometimes start as far away from home as is humanly possible. I looked at Oxfam’s accounts once, and found they were one of the most efficient charities in the world at getting the donations through to front line services. Can you help them? Not even to build the Hoover damn. The ladies of Ethiopia would just be happy with a water carrier like this:

Dixon.

by Dixon Jones

Taking water for granted at Pubcon

I think it is about time to consider dixonjones.com as distinct from Receptional.com. No longer is it a dilemma of business and personal time overlapping. Now my personal politics and preferences are mixing with my business life.

My wife has gone to bed, but my 9 year old daughter is asking to borrow a key for a magic trick. If my wife was awake, there is NO WAY I would be writing a post on my iPhone using the WordPress publishing app.

It really has gone all Pete Tong. (translation:wrong). Life has all gone arse about tit.

Is this right?

Or is my wife right?

Should I watch my daughter’s magic trick or Flash Forward or @randfish’s Twitter feed?

When I write it down… It becomes clear that of course, I should watch the magic trick.

by Dixon Jones

Time to Reflect?

People can make money out of anything – Whether you are an MP or a designer it would seem.

by Dixon Jones

MP Expenses Row – How to make money

by Dixon Jones

Bad Haircut Day

I have to say it’s not with a little intrepidation  that I am letting her loose on the Interweb. It’s far too unregulated, she’s going to post things she’s going to regret, and quite frankly an 8 year old going anywhere near my web server makes me keen not to show her how to install plug-ins for a fair few years. But in the end – what am I going to do? When both my kids were born, I bought the .co.uk versions of their names, with the intention of somehow giving them the domains as presents when they were old enough. At the time I thought “old enough” would be 14-16 or so. But kids today need different skills to the ones their parents needed. They need to start young and I can’t teach things that haven’t been invented yet. So I guess all I can do is show her how WordPress and a website gives you the tools to talk to the world.

She’s been asking for me to have a web page for ages now. What scares me is just how quickly she has stopped asking questions and just started using it.

I don’t think I’ll add her site to my blogroll JUST yet though.

(Added…) I guess that to make this post useful, I should give a few ideas on how to protect an 8 year old blogger. I’d appreciate any other ideas. So far:

1. The family computer is in a family room. Keeping an eye out is easier if she’s not locked away in a bedroom.
2. I did not give her admin access – just set her up as an editor for now.
3. No FTP access!

by Dixon Jones

WordPress For 8 Year Olds

Better not mess it up guys… you are all over the web now!

by Dixon Jones

Two of the best known SEO’s got engaged

Isn’t it about time small companies started getting similar rights online to those of individuals? I don’t use Google Analytics much – because I worry about giving my sales data to the very company that changes the cost of my traffic based on a variety of undefined metrics. The same company who’s directors have a moral obligation to maximize the revenue for their shareholders. Not mine.

Google Analytics Data Sharing Settings

In order to improve your experience with Google products, Google Analytics is updating its data sharing policy. You now have the ability to share your Analytics data with other Google services. This will improve integration, enable additional features in Google’s advertising services (including Google Analytics, AdWords and AdSense) and improve your experience with these products.

Press “Accept” to enable data sharing between Google Analytics and other Google services or for additional options, choose “More data sharing options”.

BIG ACCEPT BUTTON

Remind me later | More data sharing options | Do not share data | Learn more

by Dixon Jones

Google erodes corporate privacy rights

From Left to right: Loren baker; Li Evans; Lee odden and jolene; Joost; Jen; Dennis and Becky; Danny Sullivan; Ani and Jonathan(?); Mel & Jessica Bowman; Mel singing Karaoke; Bill and Motoko.

by Dixon Jones

SES Photos

by Dixon Jones

Together we Bankrupt Microsoft or Cure Crohns Disease

The problem is that universal search is all about optimising other forms of information on theweb. When you look for a picture of dixon jones on Google, it takes an effort to find me. You get some Grannies and Darth vadars apparently! Andy has the screenshot to prove it immediately after my presentation. I wonder if I can fix the problem inside an hour? Probably not

Dinners’ on Andy next time.

Dixon Jones (The real one)

by Dixon Jones

Pictures of Dixon Jones