Joshua Schachter once sent me an email. At the time, I had no idea who he was – his response had come from a request I’d sent to the del.icio.us ‘support team’. Del.icio.us is a social bookmarking site, I needed some help figuring out how to use it (being new to the concept) and support@del.icio.us seemed a good place to start.
His email was dated 11 October 2005. Not two months later, on 9 December, Joshua announced on his personal blog that Yahoo! had snatched up his fledgling Web 2.0 startup as part of their extreme 2.0 makeover. Nobody is really sure what was paid, but considering the bulk of the rumours estimated the price at USD30 million, give or take ten percent, Joshua did ok.
I’m not sure what it is about del.icio.us. It certainly isn’t pretty. In fact, it’s arguably one of the ugliest darn sites on the web. It might be the name – the name is downright smart, using the .us domain to complete a sublimely catchy Web 2.0-ish lilt. At least I got excited about that. Perhaps it’s all the extensions and plug-ins the del.icio.us community has created to integrate functionality into popular web browsers and blogging platforms. Then again, it might just be that I have found del.icio.us to be the least flashy, most functional, most valuable, most sustainable Web 2.0 application (and information resource) on the internet.
Continue reading ‘A Delicious Fetish’
Just when you thought there could be no new trends, the high society (high being the operative word here!) have found a new way of spending their extra cash…..by having dinner in the sky. No, its not dinner in a plane, its not dinner on a rooftop, it is dinner suspended from a crane 50m above the street and whats more, you can have it wherever you want it or wherever a crane can be taken to.Take a look at Dinner in the Sky’s website for more info. For the measly sum of 7900 Euros (Thats over R 70 000.00 for us South Africans) you can have dinner with 20 of your closest friends and family, or even do a brainstorming session up there, the sky is the limit, literally! But hey, dont drop the cutlery….hehehhe amazing, great concept, wonder if it will take off (scuse the pun)
“Civic Ventures, a think tank and program incubator helping society achieve the greatest return on experience, announced 15 finalists for its first-ever Purpose Prize, a major new initiative to invest in Americans over 60 who are leading a new age of social innovation. The finalists - including a social worker, former mayor, farmer and car salesman - reveal the wide variety of backgrounds and experiences that those over 60 bring to the task of solving some of society’s most pressing problems in what used to be called the retirement years.”
“As the first of America’s 77 million baby boomers turn 60 this year, The Purpose Prize finalists are doing what society least expects people over 60 to do: innovate,” said Marc Freedman, founder and President of Civic Ventures. “These men and women - some national figures, some local heroes - disprove the assumption that innovation is the province of the young and show us the essence of what’s possible in an aging society…. More than just a set of hands, today’s boomers and older Americans represent an extraordinary pool of social and human capital. These inspiring innovators will show that investing in social entrepreneurs in the second half of life yields unprecedented returns for society.”
The Purpose Prize will award each finalist at least $10,000 (there are 15 of them). In addition, five finalists will win $100,000 each in September.
For a summary of the nominees’ efforts, click here.
Virgin Mobile South Africa intends to have 300 000 subscribers within 18 months from its joint venture with Cell C according to a business report article. So Richard strikes again, this time in the soft underbelly of the cell phone market in South Africa, a highly lucrative business if you look at the profits of the current incumbents. However we all know how he does things, in his usual casual attitude he intends to shake up the market and offer people a service that is useful and show them all the hidden costs and also bring in some innovative ideas like monthly contracts as opposed to the current 2 year ones. They wont be offering free handsets however, but customers will be able to pay off the handset over time. Of course, the handsets and service will be sold and distibuted through the current Virgin Active outlets and this will add yet another quiver to the growing Virgin empire in South Africa.
I picked up on a great Fortune article on the CNNMoney.com site about MySQL, the open-source software designers, over the weekend. It unpacks the dynamics of this completely decentralised organisation, and just what makes it tick as well as it does.
This, according to the article, is a challenge facing many companies - new and old, established or fledgling - as we transition into a Connection Economy. As globalisation and commoditisation have an increased effect on our workplace and our employees, we need to find innovative new ways to nurture a productive bond among workers who rarely, if ever, meet.
Continue reading ‘MySQL - The Model 21st Century Company?’
…and your clicks for free.
Alex Tew is 21 years old, a student from Wiltshire, England. On August 25th of 2005 he launched the Million Dollar Homepage, an ambitious attempt to raise money (according to Alex) for his varsity education.
Quite simply, Alex set up a blank website, 1000 x 1000 pixels (one million pixels altogether) and sold off 10 x 10 pixel blocks for $100 each. That’s a dollar for a pixel, effectively. Purchasers had the option of submitting a graphic to be displayed, with a link to their website. Things started off a little slowly but as the rumours passed from pc to pc, email to email, blog to blog – orders began to pour in. Having begun with nothing at the end of August, Alex auctioned off the last 1000 pixels on 1 January 2006 for $38,100 and a grand total of $1,037,100.
Not a bad profit considering his only costs where five month’s worth of hosting fees – approximately R 500.
The incentive for investing in Alex’s homepage? Well, at the peak of its growth Alexa rated the site at 127 for traffic – that’s 127th out of ALL the sites making up the World Wide Web. The story of Alex’s site was pasted all over blogs around the world. The brands shown on the page have been seen literally by millions and millions of users. But not only are these companies, sponsors and individuals part of an elaborate (albeit successful) moneymaking scheme – they’re part of a great story. And sometimes just being part of a great story is absolutely priceless.
Continue reading ‘Money for Nothing…’
A few months ago, we commented that phone companies wanting to connect with Boomers should stop innovating, and start listening to their customers. Read that post here. Thanks to Pete Schumacher, my mate at Net#work BBDO, here is a company that was listening…
While most cell phones tout an abundance of bells and whistles, two companies are focusing on the substantial market for simpler phones. Founded by Arlene Harris, a telecoms veteran, and her husband Martin Cooper, who helped develop the first portable cell phone for Motorola in 1973, GreatCall is a new wireless company that will target baby boomers and their parents. While the network isn’t yet operational, GreatCall’s Jitterbug, a combination of handset and service provider, will soon start shipping phones. Manufactured by Samsung, the phones have big buttons, a bright screen, easy to read text, and loud and clear sound. One version (Jitterbug OneTouch) is simplified even further, its number keys replaced by three emergency buttons: one for 911, a second for Jitterbug’s operator, and a third for a personalized direct dial number.
Continue reading ‘Phones for Boomers’
There’s a well used analogy around the buggy-whip and the introduction of the motor-car. It didn’t matter how good your whip was. Didn’t matter how cheap. Didn’t matter how well you could make them. No market = no sales.
There was an interview in my Sunday Times (newspaper) with Dr Ismail Jakoet (SA Rugby’s Medical Officer) this weekend around school rugby and injuries. One of the questions asked revealed that the headgear worn by Rugby players,
has proven to be useless in preventing certain injuries, but is still being worn.
When the reporter asked why they were still being worn, because that was the primary reason for wearing them, Dr Jakoet responded with,
No, no, no. If you look at your professional players, it’s the revenue they can derive from wearing those things. High-powered players have told me they know it doesn’t wor but they get payed for wearing them.
So rugby headgear has learnt at least something from the buggy-whip… when you’re looking down the barrel of a gun, market your way right outta there.
The Wisconsin Technology Network reports on innovation and invention, and asks why so few innovations actually work. In fact, 96% of all innovation initiatives fail (!!). Read the full report here.
Yet, “business leaders see constant innovation as the only way to prevail against increasing global competition. Innovation has become one of the most popular business buzzwords. Books on innovation frequently become best sellers. Magazine editors like to create lists and give awards to the most innovative products and companies. Trend spotters say that Innovation Coach is one the latest emerging job titles.”
So, what’s the missing link?
The first problem is confusing invention and innovation. “They are different. Innovation is process and not a product. Some managers think that innovation means a clever, novel form of invention. They will stress skills like problem solving, out of the box thinking, and conceptual blockbusting. All of these skills can produce ideas. But ideas are not enough, as adoption is the real test of innovation.”
Continue reading ‘A missing link in Innovation’
Talent is an issue on everyone’s agenda. Especially in the Connection Economy.
“We’re good enough, therefore we’re old enough”. - The voice of the Young Snots.
“Call me by my first name - I know I have to earn your respect”. - The voice of a Savvy Boss.
Some companies feel like managing talent is just like herding cats. We’d like to suggest it’s not about trying to herd cats. You need new stategies. The danger is trying to offer perks, and attemting to strangle them once they’re in.
“Where are you?” - the mobility factor. Today’s talent can conduct business from anywhere, say the front of a conference room for example (a random example). Young people graduate to the world. See what Wikipedia has to say about talent here.
We hope to prepare business in terms of attracting, retaining and nurturing this talent.
They’re also a Gaming Generation. Their virtual reality interacts with their ‘real-life’ reality. Games have taught our young people how to learn from their mistakes.
“If at first you don’t succeed, learn from it and try again”.
Failure IS an option.
I am sure many of us have wished at times that we could have the “whole Internet” on our hard drives. Of course we know its impossible, the Internet in 2003 weighed in at approx 90 million gigs, a little more than most hard drives. So, to solve this problem, a company called webaroo has come up with a solution. The solution keeps a snapshot of useful info on your hard disk so that you can still search for info even offline. Obviously you wont get as many results as Google, but how many of us actually go to page 49 on a Google search anyway. An interesting service, so take a look at webaroo or to read more, read the New Scientis article here
So many companies talk about innovation, and yet at their annual reviews have to grudgingly admit that once again they’ve failed to meet expectations in this area. Most companies have innovation as a core value these days. Yet, they don’t create an environment that will foster it (in our opinion, this includes, at a minimum, a culture of diversity, and a culture of acceptance of (even rewarding of) and learning from failure).
I discovered more evidence of the lack of innovation in the Business 2.0 magazine, Jan/Feb 06 edition (purchased in Australia, but I think its the global edition).
The edition featured to “Best of” for the year past. They listed the following:
Continue reading ‘Where is the innovation’
A universal truth about a group photo is that, once it has been taken and the picture developed, the photo is only as good as each individual thinks they look. Make sense? Next time you are looking at a group photo that includes you, take note of who you look at first, as you pick up the picture. Then watch yourself pass a judgement on the entire photo, based on how good or bad you looked. Forget the fact that there were 70 other people in the photo who may have looked amazing…
Where and what we focus on is important, especially when we’re talking about the growth of people. For too long, in many parts of the world, we have embraced what can be called a ‘medical model’ when it’s come to people growth and development. The term ‘medical model’ is clearly borrowed from the medical profession, and can be simplistically understood as you consider your last visit to your local GP.
Your GP invites you to sit on her examination table and then does an exam looking for what’s wrong with you. I have never met anyone who has gone to their doctor and said, “Tell me what’s right with me, Doc. I want to know all the places I’m fantastically healthy.â€? No, we visit the doctor to find out what’s wrong with us, and then our doctor assists us to get the wrong made right. It is also important to highlight that your doctor is not incentivised to make you super-human in the fixing process. Your doctor spent seven years studying the average human being. Their job is to simply make you average again. Continue reading ‘Inviting People to Grow’
Microsoft has been tight lipped for some time about its latest offering in the PC realm. They finally took the wraps off this week and presented the latest PC offering at CeBIT. The computer is called the ultra mobile PC, why you may ask. Well it is about the size of a paperback novel but runs full version windows XP. Weighing about 1 -1.5 kg, the 1-inch thick device sports a 7-inch touch-sensitive screen that responds to a stylus or the tap of a finger.
Device looks great, and it is expected to retail in the US for between 600 and 1000 US$, so it could feasibly be under R 8000.00 locally. What about the specs you ask, well it will have up to a 60 gig hard drive and battery power of up to 2.5 hours…it is being pushed as a replacement for lugging a laptop around. Note to self, must get one of these soonest, for more info, take a look at some of these websites and be careful not to drool on your keyboard!!
http://www.windowsfordevices.com/news/NS3801638897.html
In an article from Fast Company, they have cited six jobs that they think wont exist in 2016. Well, their list is interesting, but lets just think about this for a minute. How many jobs that were critical at the turn of the century, dont exist today. Much money and time is spent on getting people trained up to do these jobs and a decade or two later, all is lost. Think of what air travel did to the railways and sea travel, think of what home theatres are doing to Movie theatres and by 2016,will we still be going to movies? Maybe we can run a list on this blog of which jobs we think will be redundant by 2016.
So, the FC list is interesting, I have put it below, but click on the link to see the FC article:
http://www.fastcompany.com/subscr/103/open_fast50-jobs.html?partner=rss
Continue reading ‘Six Jobs that wont be around in 2016′
The latest edition of New Scientist magazine has an article [read it online here] on glasses that have been invented by MIT that allow lovers to drink together from remote locations.
The glasses are fitted our with LED’s, liquid sensors, and wi-fi connectivity. When one person picks up their glass, or fills it, the LED on the other person’s glows a particular colour. When they drink, another LED indicates this activity. Besides the various other applications in fields like medicine the scientists say the ‘wireless’ glasses “help people feel as if they are sharing a drinking experience together”.
In a recent Business Week podcast the journalists were talking about the advent of ‘Post-Geographic Man’. They spoke of global virtual teams where members had never met personally. What struck me in reading the New Scientist article was the reality that this type of tool becomes a real technology enabler of post-geographic connectivity….bring on the Connection Economy!!!
The reason they teach biology before they teach chemistry in high school is that biology was invented first. Even though you need chemistry to do biology, but not vice versa.
The reason that you have a water bubbler in your office is that it used to be difficult to filter water effectively.
The reason that Blockbuster exists is that VCR tapes used to cost more than $100.
The reason that SUVs have a truck chassis is that the government regulates vehicles with a truck chassis differently.
Continue reading ‘The Reason’
New research has proven what we’ve been saying for some time: that technology (and innovation) is not the key to successful corporate renewal or knowledge management. The real key to success is PEOPLE. Intellilink Solutions puts it this way:
Knowledge management is not only about information; it is also about the people you have recruited, trained, developed, and promoted within your organization. KM involves not only the implementation of a software system; it involves understanding your business needs, your organization’s culture, and your personnel. To succeed, any KM initiative requires that you know your people and clearly define the behaviors that need to be changed or reinforced.
(read full report here).
Continue reading ‘Why Knowledge Management Fails’
Johnnic Communications have launched a new ‘citizen media’ site called reporter.co.za.
The website is inviting people to become active participants in broadening the scope of news by reporting on issues that affect their lives. reporter.co.za will be completely free-flowing and the public will decide what news they want to report on, putting the editors firmly in the back seat.
They’re suggesting that,
A new era of innovation in South African media has dawned.
Maybe it is, and maybe it isn’t? Certainly it’s clever, and they’re using the interest in blogging to create a space for people to write. I don’t know what I make of it yet. We’ve seen people write of what happens when corporates get their hands on blogging. Well this is one example. I’m going to visit here a while longer to try and work out how I feel, and what exactly they’re doing.
Be interested in your thoughts as I play….
Google just launched the beta version of Google Video. It is in beta, and so we can expect something less than the real deal, but having looked at this beta site, one hopes it’s light years away from the real deal.
I only have iTunes to compare Google’s offering with, and disapointingly Google comes nowhere close. My disapointment mostly comes from my growing expectation of the Google machine. I’m starting to expect only fantastic things from them. Instead I am served up ‘Google’ with some video.
But it is still beta. And as this BusinessWeek review of the site suggests:
This one probably should have stayed in the lab a bit longer.
In a previous post, I explained that I collect Christmas music. One of my favourite songs of this year’s crop comes from a compliation album (WOW Christmas - get it at Kalahari.net), and is “Little Drummer Boy”, as done by Audio Adrenaline. AudioA is an alternative rock band, and they took the well known Christmas carol by the scruff of its neck and did a great rock version of it, complete with overdriven guitar and pounding bass.
But as each verse built up, I was looking forward to the obvious pounding drum solo. Yet, the only instrumental breakaway we have in this version is a guitar solo. Strange, I thought, and a little disappointing, to be honest. My brother is a drummer, you see. A good one, too, with a few bands, a stint as a full-time drummer in the Airforce orchestra, a session muso, and the proud owner of a fairly impressive electronic drum kit/rack. So, I’m a fan of the drums. But a drum solo never came. I wondered why not, and if we could get a version that did.
Continue reading ‘An Idea: Customisable Music (and movies)’
In their book, “If It Ain’t Broke … Break It!” (Get it at Amazon.com or Kalahari.net), the authors, Louis Patler and Robert J. Kriegel, observed: “Not only is everything changing, but everything exists in relationship to something else that is changing.” If we don’t adjust to that, we will face extinction.
Of course, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” is conventional wisdom. Yet the fact is that every organisation needs to embrace constant change, which is the basis of innovation (after all, if innovation is not change from status quo, what is it?). The successes of the past and overall health often mask the fact that some changes are long overdue.
Speaking from my own experience, employees I’ve worked with pretty much kept to themselves. If there were any suggestion boxes, they were the the the traditional variety in which employees could pass on their thoughts anonymously. Most of the time, they were minor gripes and didn’t really contribute much to the company.
I was different. I made many suggestions, thinking I might be able to make a difference. I soon discovered that I would receive no feedback. None of my suggestions were implemented. Only a couple of times was I successful in seeing –something– come out of my many notes to management.
The first one was to talk them out of buying a propane forklift, by using their own words against them (this was a plant that built circuit boards; these things were supposedly sensitive to pollutants, like fumes). The other was when I was in a quality circle. I advanced the idea (complete with diagrams) of modifying a motherboard so certain parts could be ’stuffed’ into the board without worrying about them being put in backwards.
But I was very frustrated that out of the many ideas I proposed, I received absolutely no feedback. If you are interested enough, I’ll post a couple of what I thought were my best ideas. BTW, this company no longer exists… But I’d still rather not mention the name.
My current place of work is a little different. They have told us they are much more receptive to suggestions. The prospect of bonuses for the best suggestions have been dangled before us. Many have been posted. However, most of the people out on the floor are still deeply cynical. I’m wondering what it will take to change this. I’d appreciate any ideas.
The Wise Marketer on 27 Dec 2005, carries this story - read it here.
A summary: “The growing integration of technology into every aspect of life, whether in the home, office, family, car or recreational arenas, will profoundly impact business technology over the next decade, according to industry analysts at Gartner Inc.” The report says that consumers are now exerting massive power over businesses and the technologies that they use. Companies must take this consumer power seriously, and must make multiple connections with consumers. technology can assist in this process, if you understand how to use it properly. They must also leverage new technologies to their advantage, especially when managing and motivating their talented staff.
Some extracts:
Continue reading ‘Technology & Talent: How consumer power drives business technology’
The Dec 2005 Inc magazine has a great article on Point B, a consulting company with over 200 employees, and no office premises at all. In addition to their virtual nature, they also have a specific approach to their staff and consulting work, preferring to keep everything local, rather than moving consultants around the country.
They’ve had to battle client perceptions about size and capability, but with a few big contract successes under their belt, they’re showing that their approach is working. A good story, worth a read - here.
In the magazine, they include three specific guidelines for virtual companies:
Continue reading ‘Office Optional’
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