YouWish

My mother died 3 weeks ago. It was very unexpected.  I was sure that she would make it through the final 2 doses of chemotherapy and we would take her on holiday to Sicily, as we were planning. Yes she was fighting cancer, but she had successfully fought off the first part. It seemed such a certainty to me then. But sadly now it is all over. As my godmother said to me afterwards, becoming an orphan is never easy, whatever age you are. How right that is.

My mother was a fighter. She was an Australian who had lived in many parts of the world. She had married my father here in England and after their divorce began a nomadic trail, living in different countries and trying out new places. She had lived many adventures and was afraid of nothing and no one. She had a full life. There were things that she wanted to do still but she had few regrets. She had successfully come to terms with everything that had passed in her life. And in the end she had settled back in France, near Cognac.

I know that when she died her biggest regret would have been not saying goodbye, because we had so many plans. We were also going to move her to Paris to be closer to her friends and family. She would have loved to have gone to Sicily again, once she was feeling stronger. She would have loved some wine, nice food and amusing conversation, as the sun settled over the sea. But actually she would have been content that she had tried most things and done most of what she had wanted.

She hadn’t taken up the Internet or email yet as she loved the phone, but I know that she loved the idea of You Wish. She loved the concept of getting other people to do the work for you, of getting stuff done, of living life to the full. She could see no reason for not doing what you wanted and no reason for carrying around a large to do list. There was no time like the present to say you wanted and try and get it. And that’s the thing. We all only have one life and yet we all have tons of things that we never get round to, especially for ourselves. Why wait any longer. Now’s the time to post what services you want that will make your life better or more enjoyable. Is it someone to do your garden or is it a programme to get you fitter and healthier. Whatever is it my mother would recommend you crack on as you never know how long you have and death and taxes come to us all!

Thanks

Chris

As we all know the world has been venting their anger on MP’s for their completely dishonest handling of their expenses. That’s old news. And yet it plays to a topic that is equally important but less widely discussed, namely people’s honesty on the web.

There seems to be a sort of unwritten law that it is ok to dissemble, cheat, lie, mislead and generally obfuscate on the web. In fact anything that avoids one having to disclose proper information. Why should this be acceptable? Just because the web police haven’t been created yet and Stallone is yet to appear to sort out good from evil, that is no reason for people to behave like that. Much of this has originated from the fact that people have an aversion to revealing their true identity on the web. And so it is increasingly hard for people to work out what stories are true or false and nowhere more so than on Twitter.

Why do I care?

Well I care because there are so many double standards being applied by people in different circumstances. It’s ok for Journalists to reveal information about MP’s expenses and yet media insitutions like the BBC have such a problem with being fully transparent about their own organisations.

If we want other people to take each one of us seriously then it is high time that we were all a little more transparent about who we are and what we want. And so if we expect companies to take time to give proper service, then it is equally important that people give out the right personal information to help them do their job. That’s why I find it frustrating when users of You Wish don’t put in their postcodes or other critical information that a business needs to sell them something. We shouldn’t have to mandate that people fill in a ton of personal information. Instead people should just think through what is important for that company or person to deliver what they want. They shouldn’t need prompting.

After all we protect people’s personal contact details. No-one gets those unless the individual concerned wants to give out their telephone number or email address. But we’re trying to create relationships here between companies and people and both sides need to honour an unwritten agreement. If I am going to take you seriously then at least think about my needs and respect my position. If all sides do that then everybody should find it much easier to get what they want.

It’s simple really. It’s like any friendship. It’s built on trust and it’s maintained by honouring that trust. Perhaps we can teach MP’s a thing or two after all!