Ryan S. posted an article on 5956N - May 29, 2011, 4:09 pm
An ambitious effort, to define and share shipping's core skill, begins. Join it. By Ryan Skinner (email) Alas, this blog almost died. Almost. I work in a different city now, and with companies whose interest is far from those curious concerns of shipowners (most of them, ...
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Ryan S. posted an article on 5956N - Mar 24, 2011, 6:31 am
Finally, an event dedicated to preaching the beauties of big data to big shipping! By Ryan Skinner (email) A couple months ago I was talking to a very clever guy at The Containership Company who was describing for me the challenges of using data to improve ship operations. He basically...
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Ryan S. posted an article on 5956N - Mar 9, 2011, 10:16 am
If you've got original thoughts about shipping, this may be a place where you can share them. By Ryan Skinner (email) I'm going from a day-to-day shipping mindset to a day-to-day digital PR mindset. That means I'll be blogging less about shipping. That means an opportunity for you.
...
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Ryan S. posted an article on 5956N - Mar 8, 2011, 7:07 am
The person deemed most worthy of inclusion in the Portfire40 is a man (or woman) of mystery. By Ryan Skinner (email) After a considerable nominations process and then voting, the first winner of Portfire40 was selected! Months ago, in fact. Unfortunately, this first honoree is a...
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Ryan S. posted an article on 5956N - Mar 7, 2011, 4:48 am
What news do shipping professionals really want? What do they really need? Two answers? By Ryan Skinner (email) It's all about this: Be the go-to source of information for the kinds of decision-makers who lead the industry. Any one pitching a story at a Lloyd's List or TradeWinds edito...
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Ryan S. posted an article on 5956N - Mar 4, 2011, 7:38 am
DNV published a nifty book on technology recently. Here are shipping's outtakes. By Ryan Skinner (email) This week I was at Høvik HQ and a DNV person shoved a fresh little publication in my hands. The tome's called "Technology Outlook 2020". Its remit was broad, from global megatrends...
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Ryan S. posted an article on 5956N - Feb 28, 2011, 6:11 am
Could a ferocious supranational arm of justice for shipping, solve all of shipping's problems? By Ryan Skinner (email) I've been there before. The rulebook that's pulled over the shipping industry like a straight-jacket doesn't work. It creates paper-compliers (following only the lette...
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Ryan S. posted an article on 5956N - Feb 22, 2011, 7:47 am
Monetizing what's most important for shipping's buyers. Your product? No! Compliance... By Ryan Skinner (email) You should only make money when you create value. Um, yeah, alright. Most shipping suppliers ship off their products to customers, then tick the box marked "Cre...
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Ryan S. posted an article on 5956N - Feb 11, 2011, 10:18 am
What it takes to put an issue like piracy on the high seas, higher on the public agenda By Ryan Skinner (email) Piracy's a subject I long ago decided not to touch with a barge-pole. Why? It doesn't need attention from the likes of me, and so many people know so much more than I. Let th...
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Ryan S. posted an article on 5956N - Feb 1, 2011, 3:11 am
They say everyone chooses their own kind of hell. For shipping, it just might be the rules. By Ryan Skinner (email) It's total sacrilege, but I'm going to say it. Maybe DNV f*cked up. Now, I have all the respect in the world for the guys over at Høvik. They're brilliant. Even i...
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Ryan S. posted an article on 5956N - Jan 28, 2011, 4:39 am
Is the Internet, and the jolly nook of it inhabited by shipping, in serious need of an arsonist? By Ryan Skinner (email) Go to LinkedIn and search for maritime groups, or shipping groups. Then click on something like the 50th page of search results. It's a sorry sight. Groups are start...
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Ryan S. posted an article on 5956N - Jan 24, 2011, 4:37 pm
Online marketplaces are not anonymous. You will be judged on your performance. By Ryan Skinner (email) Remember how the Internet was going to introduce a whole new level of competition and accountability to business transactions? Suddenly, anyone could do business with anyone. D...
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Ryan S. posted an article on 5956N - Jan 19, 2011, 3:26 am
They're famous for it: Innovators and frustration with "how things are". Here's one. By Ryan Skinner (email) I don't know Alex Vari. I've never met him, and I know basically nothing about what he has designed. What I do know is this: He's well-frustrated with conservatism in shipping. ...
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Ryan S. posted an article on 5956N - Jan 18, 2011, 4:02 am
A new guide to marine efficiency technologies is out. It's called "The Guide". Is it "The Answer"? By Ryan Skinner (email) Most publishers give reviewers a free copy of the book. A few days ago a PR rep from Blue Communications sent me a press release (here it is: Download Fathom 'T...
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Ryan S. posted an article on 5956N - Jan 5, 2011, 7:05 am
Does more efficient shipping equal more ships and more pollution and emissions? The Jevons Paradox. By Ryan Skinner (email) I've had an operation in the new year, and thus more time to read some meaty stuff. I stumbled over a particularly compelling little article in the New Yorker tha...
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Ryan S. posted an article on 5956N - Dec 21, 2010, 2:29 pm
The guy who's made space tourism a reality is pit against the homeland of IKEA over....an index. By Ryan Skinner (email) So, despite coverage from a handful of major news organizations, Richard Branson's own clean shipping index seemed to kind of tank. The industry itself seems to th...
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Ryan S. posted an article on 5956N - Dec 18, 2010, 4:07 am
In the wake of a mini-tussle on the LinkedIn Marine Media group, I ask: How are lists of powerful people linked to the revenue streams of those publications who push them? By Ryan Skinner (email) It all started with an email from a trusted source at a shipping company. He complained th...
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Ryan S. posted an article on 5956N - Dec 8, 2010, 3:21 am
  12 zippy articles to give any shipping professional the ultimate social media head-start By Ryan Skinner (email) Over the past two years, I have done my best to cover everything that moves in terms of social media and the shipping industry. This has resulted in 12 posts that...
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Ryan S. posted an article on 5956N - Dec 7, 2010, 4:28 am
Is the Richard Branson-magic the stuff of industrial progress, or the stuff of smoke and mirrors? By Ryan Skinner (email) Carbon War Room's Peter Browning dropped me, ever so casually, a press release from Cancun last night, informing me of the world's first carbon emissions data hub f...
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Ryan S. posted an article on 5956N - Dec 3, 2010, 6:56 am
Probably 70% of marketing efforts in this industry are box-checking exercises. Who are you talking to? By Ryan Skinner (email) Tell me if this sounds familiar: A new pump/box/widget/port-service is going to be launched, so the marketing people put together direct mailings, a press re...
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Ryan S. posted an article on 5956N - Dec 2, 2010, 4:02 am
An irresistible force hits an immovable object in the immediate vicinity of voters. Ouch. By Ryan Skinner (email) Shipping's long pleaded its innocence in environmental terms. It argued for efficiency in supply chains, even as smoke stacks belched SOX and NOX into port-side populati...
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Ryan S. posted an article on 5956N - Nov 26, 2010, 5:01 am
Not exactly a start-up but in full commercial ramp-up mode, this little outfit's got big potential By Ryan Skinner (email) One of Light Structures' founders, Karianne Pran, holds a Light Structures fibre-optic sensor, together with Managing Director Inge Paulsen It wasn't long...
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Ryan S. posted an article on 5956N - Nov 11, 2010, 10:15 am
If you thought it was all about environment, price or partnerships, you'd be wrong. By Ryan Skinner (email) For all its desire to stay the same, shipping's changing. You can feel it in the desires of customers and the customers' customers, both shippers and carriers. And anyone talking...
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Ryan S. posted an article on 5956N - Nov 3, 2010, 11:59 am
Has shipping finally gotten a decent yardstick to beat itself (senseless) with? It might. By Ryan Skinner (email) This week Maersk announced that it had obtained Lloyd's Register certification for a scheme to measure carbon emissions from its ships. From now on, it would: Add the...
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Ryan S. posted an article on 5956N - Nov 2, 2010, 9:19 am
Whining about the paucity of new maritime recruits shows results: A headache and no medicine. By Ryan Skinner (email) The President of Travelers' Ocean Marine Division Richard DeSimone sounds the kind of alarm one might expect a marine insurance group to sound. I quote: If something is...
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Ryan S. posted an article on 5956N - Oct 29, 2010, 5:24 am
Web 2.0 has its Ron Conways & Jack Dorseys; shipping's going to see its own serial entrepreneurs. By Ryan Skinner (email) For all the wrath that the .com bubble created, it also created something else - something called serial entrepreneurs. These are people who develop new business af...
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Ryan S. posted an article on 5956N - Oct 27, 2010, 8:06 am
New ways to present information bring home the real story: Piracy's a pain that ain't goin' away. By Ryan Skinner (email) About two weeks ago, I started monitoring sources of information regarding merchant shipping piracy, and plotting in events and announcements in a timeline, produce...
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Ryan S. posted an article on 5956N - Oct 26, 2010, 9:29 am
Are efforts to integrate components actively or passively hampered by the supply industry? By Ryan Skinner (email) In the first four parts of this series, we studied how software integration issues were hindering progress in, among other areas, environmental improvements to shipping, a...
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Ryan S. posted an article on 5956N - Oct 25, 2010, 3:59 am
A coalition of Norwegian shipowners and a Maltese mosquito take different tacts to software integration issues. By Ryan Skinner (email) In the last part of this series, Wartsila explained how it sought to solve software integration problems by offering an entire portfolio within their ...
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Ryan S. posted an article on 5956N - Oct 22, 2010, 9:06 am
Big suppliers like Wartsila offer to integrate the whole ship within their proprietary systems. A good thing? By Ryan Skinner (email) In the first parts of the series, we looked at industry-wide struggles to integrate software and components, then how the automotive industry tackled si...
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Ryan S. posted an article on 5956N - Oct 21, 2010, 3:58 am
Major car manufacturers solved software integration problems with open-source architecture. Something for shipping? By Ryan Skinner (email) In the first part of this series, a Wilhelmsen manager described the challenges shipowners face with software integration issues. Failure to integ...
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Ryan S. posted an article on 5956N - Oct 20, 2010, 2:57 am
The rising software content of merchant ships sets the stage for an epic struggle over ships' components and data. By Ryan Skinner (email) This is the first part of a five-part series that studies the impact that software is having on the commercial shipping industry. The series will f...
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Ryan S. posted an article on 5956N - Oct 19, 2010, 2:08 am
For those who like their information in one document, I have compiled the entire "Future of Internet Use in the Shipping Business" survey into a .pdf report. You can download the .pdf: Download The Future of Internet Use in the Shipping Business_OCT-2010. For those who prefer to scroll...
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Ryan S. posted an article on 5956N - Oct 18, 2010, 9:47 am
Award-winning outfit that hopes to install floating windmills from a barge gets start capital By Ryan Skinner (email) The idea, says the founders, came from Statoil's difficulties installing its floating Hywind windmills two years ago. Towing the huge floating windmills out to sea while up...
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Ryan S. posted an article on 5956N - Oct 14, 2010, 7:47 am
Real-time data on piracy off the Horn of Africa crowdsourced by the industry: Can it work? By Ryan Skinner (email) The very idea of crowdsourcing makes many people's eyelids flutter. "Oh, please, once you turn something over to the crowds, the result is a mess," many would say. Attitudes t...
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Ryan S. posted an article on 5956N - Oct 11, 2010, 10:00 am
Waning support of free trade: The hobgoblin of stagnating economies, or poor supply chain management? By Ryan Skinner (email) So I recoiled at a recent Wall Street Journal headline "Americans Sour on Trade", in which a Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll cites a majority of US respondents saying...
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Ryan S. posted an article on 5956N - Oct 8, 2010, 2:41 am
Container scans, RFID, the Internet of Things: Big Brother's going to forever change shipping By Ryan Skinner (email) It starts with a demand. US government has resolved to require every container arriving at US ports to be pre-scanned. The concern may be paranoid or legitimate, depending ...
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Ryan S. posted an article on 5956N - Oct 6, 2010, 5:34 am
Internet tools are steaming into business practices in shipping, as confidence and understanding grow By Ryan Skinner (email) This is the tenth part of the ten-part FoIS series that I introduced last week, presenting the results of a unique survey about Internet use in the shipping industry. T...
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Ryan S. posted an article on 5956N - Oct 5, 2010, 4:46 am
Today, roughly one in three shipping professionals see social media as a valuable new tool. By Ryan Skinner (email) This is the ninth part of the ten-part FoIS series that I introduced last week, presenting the results of a unique survey about Internet use in the shipping industry. The survey ...
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Ryan S. posted an article on 5956N - Oct 4, 2010, 7:27 am
Stability-loving shipping may bite off more volatility than it can chew, with gas. By Ryan Skinner (email) Norwegians love gas. I mean, they really, really love gas. Norway invested around 6 billion euro to develop its Snøhvit field in the Barents Sea, and another 8+ billion euro for Troll. F...
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Ryan S. posted an article on 5956N - Oct 4, 2010, 4:34 am
Most shipping companies feel like they're on their way to e-business; some further than others. By Ryan Skinner (email) This is the eighth part of the ten-part FoIS series that I introduced last week, presenting the results of a unique survey about Internet use in the shipping industry. Th...
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Ryan S. posted an article on 5956N - Oct 1, 2010, 4:39 am
Offline experiences influence online behavior when shipping companies choose suppliers By Ryan Skinner (email) This is the seventh part of the ten-part FoIS series that I introduced last week, presenting the results of a unique survey about Internet use in the shipping industry. The survey was...
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Ryan S. posted an article on 5956N - Sep 30, 2010, 6:36 am
Don't think all the operational data available now creates an El Dorado. It's more like the deep Amazon. By Ryan Skinner (email) There's a multitude of outfits offering information to help shipbrokers gain a competitive advantage on intelligence of ship movements. Lloyd's List ...
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Ryan S. posted an article on 5956N - Sep 30, 2010, 3:55 am
Doing business over the Internet seems driven primarily by speed and reduced administrative burden By Ryan Skinner (email) This is the sixth part of the ten-part FoIS series that I introduced last week, presenting the results of a unique survey about Internet use in the shipping industry. The ...
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Ryan S. posted an article on 5956N - Sep 29, 2010, 4:11 am
 Shipping businesses shy away from greater e-business due to lack of understanding and trust By Ryan Skinner (email) This is the fifth part of the ten-part FoIS series that I introduced last week, presenting the results of a unique survey about Internet use in the shipping industry. The surve...
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Ryan S. posted an article on 5956N - Sep 28, 2010, 7:40 am
Somewhere, a superintendent is probably getting ripped off, big-time, right now. Know your broadband usage. By Ryan Skinner (email) So Telaurus' PR guy, Neville Smith, got in touch and gave me this little jewel: Shipping companies are lining up to move to Inmarsat FleetBroadband and Vsat...
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Ryan S. posted an article on 5956N - Sep 28, 2010, 4:05 am
Though many begin buys on the Internet, it is still relatively few who complete their transactions there By Ryan Skinner (email) This is the fourth part of the ten-part FoIS series that I introduced last week, presenting the results of a unique survey about Internet use in the shipping industr...
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Ryan S. posted an article on 5956N - Sep 27, 2010, 4:25 am
  Half of shipping's purchasers start most of their buying processes on the Internet By Ryan Skinner (email) This is the third part of the ten-part FoIS series that I introduced yesterday, presenting the results of a unique survey about Internet use in the shipping industry. The...
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Ryan S. posted an article on 5956N - Sep 24, 2010, 6:39 am
Shipping professionals are spending a surprising amount of time doing business on the Internet By Ryan Skinner (email) This is the second part of the ten-part FoIS series that I introduced yesterday, presenting the results of a unique survey about Internet use in the shipping industry. The...
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Ryan S. posted an article on 5956N - Sep 23, 2010, 2:59 pm
Sailing into the glorious future of data and measurement? Well, reality's a bitch. By Ryan Skinner (email) We trust numbers and data, but do we trust them too much? Countless are the tales of squirrely AIS signals. Innumerable are the accounts of bad sensor readings. Endless are the examples o...
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