TED Community » Peter Sparrow

More About Me

I'm passionate about

Global Healthcare and the power of information to improve quality, efficiency and patient choice and experience of healthcare

Talk to me about

Open Innovation, collaborative working, new product and service design.

People don't know that I'm good at

As an engineer I loved solving problems and understanding latest technologies. So have embraced each new internet technology as it came along to help connect and work with people across the globe.

My TED Story

I was born on the equator, so whichever way I looked I was aware of the massive diversity on this wonderful small planet of ours. I have had the good fortune to work with and have friends from several different continents. As a child I marvelled at the cut away drawings of current and future innovations. It was the time of the space race and it looked like the life of Dan Dare could come true. It was these formative thoughts and the joy I have in solving problems that set me off to be an engineer. Later I learned why projects fail and so why the future keeps getting postponed. It was the people side of leadership, innovation and project management I realised was both more difficult and more interesting than solving the technical problems.I have embraced each new internet technology to help connect and work with people. Today I am working with Healthcare organisations to use information to improve quality, efficiency and improve patient expeirence and inform patient choice

Comments

• TEDCred score: +0.70 TEDCred reflects your contribution to the TED community.

• A reply on Conversation: Is email is dead - this year social media became more popular than email. Is there a future for email?

  Oct 30 2011: Simone, what stops your relatives using social networks would you say?

• A reply on Conversation: Is email is dead - this year social media became more popular than email. Is there a future for email?

  Oct 30 2011: There are no silly questions. By asking them I find out what people like and don't like and what their views are on using different communication technologies for different purposes. I learn from the responses.
  
  Yes of course email can die, we don't use typewriters for writing letters we don't use semaphore for sending messages over long distances at sea. So it is certain at some point email will be dead media.
  
  But that is not my interest, my interest is email is already being replaced today by other forms of communication. Email will continue for certain communication as it has certain strengths. But Social Media have found flaws in email and has advantage for certin users now that's interesting...if we understand that and why.

• A reply on Conversation: Is email is dead - this year social media became more popular than email. Is there a future for email?

  Oct 20 2011: I find it really interesting how most posts say social media is not for business. I think this is because people make social media synonomous with Facebook. So I do understand no one wants their boss to see their facebook page. However, there are other social media sites like Linkedin for instance that is purely for business. So its the functionality and uses of social media that makes it a better tool than email. Social media is being taken very seriously by businesses, its just that it does not have to mean facebook. Does that help clarify a little why email could be replaced?
  thanks again for posting its greatly appreciated

• A comment on Conversation: Is email is dead - this year social media became more popular than email. Is there a future for email?

  Oct 20 2011: I have worked with a client that has one email box for the whole company so everyone in the company sees everything that comes into the company and everything that is sent out by any individual. It is good in sharing information without retyping or forwarding emails. It also has some pretty mighty cons to it as well. They have worked liked this for many years. But as the email header is also used the message there is little need to open emails either which allows very fast scanning of the email box for what is relevant.
  What is really interesting is that Skype with its IM and Voice messaging seems to be replacing the use of email within the company. Video calling adds another dimension. I really can envisage that working with this company that email will be dead - as if new customers want to contact us then a social media site like yammer or linked in actually is better. Email (without gmail's excellent linked conversation) is poor at relating different communications at different times

• A reply on Conversation: Is email is dead - this year social media became more popular than email. Is there a future for email?

  Oct 20 2011: I get job offers through linked in - a social media site?

• A reply on Conversation: Is email is dead - this year social media became more popular than email. Is there a future for email?

  Oct 20 2011: Some social media sites, e.g. Yammer allows separate groups so you can communicate within just a certified group and others cannot see it. So I am guessing you could set up separate groups for each communication group you work with? Would that work ?

• A reply on Conversation: Is email is dead - this year social media became more popular than email. Is there a future for email?

  Oct 20 2011: Interesting integration - we could have be getting back to one integrated communication -
• +1

  A reply on Conversation: Is email is dead - this year social media became more popular than email. Is there a future for email?

  Oct 20 2011: Good point - so we see email as more private and more directed than social networking.
  What I hope is the send all type of email in many corporates start to die... and it gets back to meaningful one to one communication.
  Once you get over 70 emails a day (as you do in many companies today) then 80% of emails in corporates are barely opened or people spend 5 seconds on glancing at contents.

• A reply on Conversation: Is email is dead - this year social media became more popular than email. Is there a future for email?

  Oct 20 2011: James
  Each new technology gets blocked to start with by the internal IT dept in backward thinking organisations. Many more businesses are using social networking now to monitor customers views on their products and brands, using test marketing approaches and as a way to communicate externally with suppliers as well. I has gone main stream for many businesses. If you started a homework facebook page with one of the teachers I am sure the school woudl change their policy overnight.
  
  It looks like snail mail is getting reserved for the very personal, (who really likes an e-card for Christmas or on their birthday) or for junk circulars.
  
  A hotel I stayed at a while back sent me a hand written post card before christmas to say how their preparations were going and that they sitting next to a roaring log fire - a very nice touch - I read it and did not throw it in the bin as I would with so much junk mail.
  
  So each form needs to have distinct value and help our busy lives.
  thanks very much for replying

• A reply on Talk: Ken Robinson: Changing education paradigms

  Oct 11 2011: Robyn - Don't be frustrated - a reason for just talking about an issue first as Ken does is that it leaves room for many others to contribute their ideas on how to go about solving it. Which you do with your reply so well as you list so many reasonable solutions. By enlisting many others in forming the ideas to solution then we get more people joing and we get better ideas. It then gives options to look more into. So well done for moving the debate along.