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December 31, 2007

Renewable Electron Economy Part XI: Sending Coal to the Sidelines

by: Michael Hoexter

Climate scientists, environmentalists and some political leaders have been telling us that we should stop using coal to generate electricity or at least use it with the as yet untried carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) technology. James Hansen, one of the leading climatologists, has likened the trains laden with coal from Wyoming’s Power River Basin that roll through America as “death trains”, referring to the potential extinction of species as the climate rapidly changes. Al Gore and as well as other environmental advocates and political leaders around the world have called for a moratorium on new coal-fired generation without CCS. But where does this leave electric utilities in the US, Europe, Africa, and Asia who depend on present and planned coal-fired power plants to supply customers with power?

Continue reading "Renewable Electron Economy Part XI: Sending Coal to the Sidelines" »

6 Business Models for the Metaverse

by: Rick van der Wal via Business and Games Blog

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This year we’ve seen many brands come and go in Virtual Worlds. Some have invested in their own worlds, other have invested in a presence within social virtual worlds. Today I want to list some of the ways users and corporations have been playing with the Metaverse, creating the following overview of Business models they used both successfully and unsuccessfully.

Continue reading "6 Business Models for the Metaverse" »

December 30, 2007

A Few 2008 Predictions (Not Exhaustive) and Happy New Year to You All!

by: Idris Mootee

I guess this is the time to make some predictions. This is by no means exhaustive and some are more important than others. Here they are but not particular order of importance other than just some random thoughts at this time of the year in front of my fireplace. If you have some good ones to add, pls send them this way.

Continue reading "A Few 2008 Predictions (Not Exhaustive) and Happy New Year to You All!" »

December 29, 2007

Pew on teen social media practices (with interesting bits on class)

by: danah boyd

While I was off struggling with Leopard and pants, Pew put out another great report: Teens and Social Media. This report fleshes out what I noticed earlier - teens are much more protective of the content they post online than adults are. Yet, this report is sooo much more than that.

Continue reading "Pew on teen social media practices (with interesting bits on class)" »

What Are Your 2008 Predictions and Business Goals

by: Rick van der Wal via Business and Games Blog

Earlier I reported about Virtual World News’ survey amongst 45 big players in the field of Virtual Worlds, and now they want bloggers to answer the same questions:

Continue reading "What Are Your 2008 Predictions and Business Goals " »

December 28, 2007

Audio Branding: ‘Tis the Season

by: Roger Dooley

Marketing campaigns often focus primarily on the sense of vision, whether they are purely visual elements like print ads and billboards, or even when they have associated sound, like television commercials or retail environments. I’ve written about olfactory marketing - appealing to the sense of smell - but what about sound?

Continue reading "Audio Branding: ‘Tis the Season" »

Managing the Creative Class or the Modern Day Working Class "Da Vincis"

by: Idris Mootee

People often complain that creative types are difficult to manage if they can be managed at all and many of them are high maintenance in nature. There is some truth here but I don't necessarily think that is case. My favorite types of creative people are what I called the "Da Vincis". They are people who can use both sides of the brain. Maybe this is what Roger Marin refers to as "Integrative Thinker". I picked up his book The Opposite Mind (while I was stuck in Denver airport for a connecting flight back from Palm Spring where we had a planning session) and I was reading it during this holiday. I buy 10 books a month and I read only one of them. Here is a good one.

Continue reading "Managing the Creative Class or the Modern Day Working Class "Da Vincis"" »

SaaS predictions for 2008 and beyond

by: Christian Smagg

With only a few days left before 2008 hits us, I thought it was the perfect timing to dive into what Saugatuck Technology just reported as being their SaaS predictions. Their recent research alert highlights five key trends in SaaS for 2008 and beyond.

Continue reading "SaaS predictions for 2008 and beyond" »

Social Systems

by: David Armano

When we think about social networks—we tend to focus on the connecting nodes.  The links that bind us and what makes a network, a network.  But the less frequently told story is the one where we spend countless hours building and maintaining our own little "social solar systems".  In these "social systems" we have multiple planetary ecosystems revolving around us.

Continue reading "Social Systems" »

December 27, 2007

Bravely going where no man (person) has gone before

by: Dick Stroud

Brother and sister plus father with dementia. Doesn’t sound a laugh a minute. This is a subject that is very close to the hearts of many of the 50-plus. At one level having to deal with the practicalities of ageing and difficult parents at another, staring at one’s own future?

Continue reading "Bravely going where no man (person) has gone before " »

The company that went bankrupt on Christmas Eve

by: Dominic Basulto

Maxjet Over the past few years, one of the most interesting innovations in the airline industry has been the growth & expansion of the "business class only" travel segment for service between international cities such as New York and London. Companies like Eos, SilverJet and MAXJet were early pioneers and deserve enormous kudos for their courage and tenacity for taking on the airline majors in a brazen attempt to siphon away the industry's most profitable customers.

Continue reading "The company that went bankrupt on Christmas Eve" »

Flashy Micro-sites Are So 2007. Look for Distributed Content Experiences in 2008.

by: David Armano

Update:
I'm having a real-time Twitter conversation with Adweek's Brian Morrissey who, as an avid runner is not a fan of the site and offers this opinion:

"the content is one-size-fits-all lame, the redirect to forums sucks out loud and it's still nike talking at me."

Continue reading "Flashy Micro-sites Are So 2007. Look for Distributed Content Experiences in 2008." »

December 26, 2007

25 Bad Habits of Industrial Designers

by: Design Translator

About time I got to this one and I though it makes a great post to face the year end with!

I also hope to keep this as a living document that gets constantly updated (with additional input from all my readers), and a good reference guide for industrial designers that want to learn to rule the world!

Continue reading "25 Bad Habits of Industrial Designers" »

Top 10 articles of the year

by: John Caddell

10 (tie). "Consumed: Boxed Set (the Buddha Machine)," Rob Walker, New York Times Magazine, July 29. The story of the most innovative music package in recent memory.

Continue reading "Top 10 articles of the year" »

The Reputation Chameleon

by: C. Sven Johnson

For those of you who recall my earlier entry discussing the Philips Design probe discussion (reLink), consider this a follow-on post.

Continue reading "The Reputation Chameleon" »

8 Important Consumertrends for 2008

by: Rick van der Wal via Business and Games Blog

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One of my favorite websites is Trendwatching.com. They list, analyze and explain upcoming trends, hypes and subtrends and present these findings in a very attractive and readable way.

Continue reading "8 Important Consumertrends for 2008" »

December 24, 2007

Nokia's Eco Sensing Cell Phone Brings New Meaning to Connectivity

by: Idris Mootee

Social networks are finally converging with mobile connectivity and eco-friendly concepts. Nokia is at the cutting edge of innovation again (Motorola, what are you guys doing?) with this visionary concept of Eco Sensor Phone System. This new design concept consists of a cell phone and compatible sensing device that allows you to stay connected to your friends as well as to your health and local environment.

Continue reading "Nokia's Eco Sensing Cell Phone Brings New Meaning to Connectivity" »

$9 Bi: Microsoft's Conservative Estimate for the Serious Games Market

by: Eliane Alhadeff

Following my prior post Microsoft Shaping The Serious Games Movement Into A Multi-Billion Dollar Market, where I state that "by no means would Microsoft join either a current $ 150 million dollar market or a to-be $ 1 billion market only in 2011" (as projected by a few sources), BusinessWeek has published an article this week where David Boker, senior director of the Business Development Group at Microsoft's Aces Studio, one of Microsoft's game studios where ESP was developed, says Microsoft conservatively estimates this market at $9 billion.

Continue reading "$9 Bi: Microsoft's Conservative Estimate for the Serious Games Market" »

The green (ish) 50-plus

by: Dick Stroud

Whenever I tell people that older people are more environmentally ‘aware’ (whatever that means) than the young they are surprised. Logically you would think the older you get the less concerned you are about the state of the environment since you are not going to be around to suffer the consequences.

Continue reading " The green (ish) 50-plus" »

Total economic impact of Software-as-a-Service: The foundation of a sound technology investment

by: Christian Smagg

As firms look to focus on core business processes, software-as-a-service (SaaS) provides an increasingly attractive alternative. Companies of all sizes are weighing advantages of SaaS which has emerged as an important deployment option in customer relationship management (CRM) but is also eliciting interest in other areas such as enterprise resource planning (ERP), security or backup just to name a few.

Continue reading "Total economic impact of Software-as-a-Service: The foundation of a sound technology investment" »

December 23, 2007

All I Want for X-MAS is a Better X-perience

by: David Armano

Bruce Tempkin of Forrester and the Customer Experience Matters blog has gift-wrapped a nice little stocking stuffer in the form of "Customer Experience Resolutions".  They are:

Continue reading "All I Want for X-MAS is a Better X-perience" »

December 21, 2007

Humanity Slowly Returns to Creativity - 64% of Teenagers Engage in Content Creation

by: Gary Hayes

Well a bit of a pompous title perhaps, fueled by a report just published by Pew Internet (one of my fav research groups) who reminded me of something a few of us have been bleating on about for a while - that the last 200 years of media distribution have been an anomaly.

Continue reading " Humanity Slowly Returns to Creativity - 64% of Teenagers Engage in Content Creation " »

Season's Greetings from Futurelab

by: Alain Thys

While we probably won't disappear over the Christmas days, we will be taking it a bit easier over the next week when it comes to providing your daily Futurelab update.  So, I would like to thank everyone who has contributed to another great year on both this blog and Business & Games.  I would also like to thank you as readers and commenters for your continued attention.  We are intent to stay on our path for 2008 and sincerely hope you rejoin us for the ride.

Have a great Christmas and Year End !!

Mapping The Serious Games Industry Within The UK

by: Eliane Alhadeff  (also see Business&Games)

The West Midlands (UK) region is fast becoming recognized as one of the key EU regions with regard to the development of Serious Games.

Continue reading "Mapping The Serious Games Industry Within The UK " »

JibJab 2007 Year in Review and Season's Greetings

by: Karl Long

Well I’m just getting ready to leave for the airport, I have a midnight flight to Taipei and then on to Vietnam for a motorcycle tour through the northwest mountains. I don’t think i’ll be blogging much but i’ll try and keep flickr and twitter updated via my N95 8gig :-) 

Continue reading "JibJab 2007 Year in Review and Season's Greetings" »

December 20, 2007

You Can't Force Them to Come to You

by: Nancy Baym

As you have likely heard, Prince has been ruffling the righteous feathers of many fans lately by seeking the domain names of a number of Prince fan sites. The grounds are ‘intellectual property violations.’ Among the violations are photos of fan tattoos of images to which Prince holds the rights. Nevermind whose body they’re on. You can follow the struggle from the affected sites’ POV on their site Prince Fans United.

Continue reading "You Can't Force Them to Come to You" »

It's Time To Kill The Art Department

by: David Armano

Let me be clear.  I'm not saying we shouldn't have a "creative" group, or a strategy group or a tech group etc.  What I am saying is that the "department mentality" needs to go away—like permanently.

Continue reading "It's Time To Kill The Art Department" »

December 19, 2007

Muslim Car? Buddist Cell Phone? What's Next?

by: Idris Mootee

Innovation is everywhere and I see the coming convergence of religions and new consumer experience. Malaysian car maker Proton announced that they will team up with manufacturers in Iran and Turkey to create the first Muslim car. The car could boast special features like a compass pointing to Mecca and a dedicated space to keep a copy of the Koran and a headscarf. I think Volkswagen should create Muslim Beetle to compete.

Continue reading "Muslim Car? Buddist Cell Phone? What's Next?" »

IMMN Webinar

by: Dick Stroud

IMMN is a group of consultants and agencies that focus on the 50-plus market.  I was asked to speak at the organisation’s first Webinar together with Todd Harff (US) and Gill Walker (Australia). Despite some technical glitches – like the hotel where I was staying having a broadband blackout and Gill not being able to control her presentation - I think it went pretty well.

Continue reading "IMMN Webinar" »

Matt Cutts and Blogging for Traffic

by: Roger Dooley

Got a brand new website you want to promote? Wondering how to get traffic and improve Google rankings? Google’s webmaster Svengali Matt Cutts clued us in at the recent Pubcon in Las Vegas: start a blog. (You were expecting, maybe, “buy a bunch of links?” ;) ) Matt pointed out that Wordpress was mostly pre-optimized for search engines - the latest versions reduce duplicate content issues, page structure, titles, etc., fit Google’s recommendations, and keyword URLs are easy to generate. We’ve been blog advocates for years, but Matt’s blunt recommendations was still a bit of a surprise. Let’s look at why adding a blog to a new (or even old) site can be a good idea.

Continue reading "Matt Cutts and Blogging for Traffic" »

Driving successfully web 2.0 into the enterprise

by: Christian Smagg

Web20atWork_WhiteBoard

There are risks and challenges associated with adopting any new technology, and Enterprise 2.0 is no different. 

It is quickly becoming evident that successful implementation is arising from business strategy, aligned with clearly defined outcomes & objectives, and supported by organisational structures, company's culture and adapted technologies. Like any other project, it requires thought, preparation, support, energy, and communication.

Continue reading "Driving successfully web 2.0 into the enterprise" »

December 18, 2007

What Is It about John Lewis and Nationwide?

by: Mark Rogers

Department store John Lewis have announced that whilst their rivals may be suffering, they are growing market share. The Nationwide building society has seen a surge of deposits recently, partly the effect of the Northern Rock collapse.

Continue reading "What Is It about John Lewis and Nationwide?" »

Anderson and “Free”

by: C. Sven Johnson

Two or three weeks ago, after a rather long absence, I surfed aimlessly over to Chris “Long Tail” Anderson’s blog. As someone who was contemplating the same “Long Tail” potentials in the early part of the decade (and who shot emails containing a link to the original Wired article out to former co-workers exclaiming, “This is what I was talking about. Read this!”), I got tired of the repetitive entries being posted around the time his book was published and drifted away.

Continue reading "Anderson and “Free”" »

Cool Products and Neuromarketing

by: Roger Dooley

I’ve often said that the most exciting application of neuromarketing techniques isn’t that of choosing or developing advertisements, but rather designing better products.

Continue reading "Cool Products and Neuromarketing" »

Introducing . . . The Eco-Friendly Cigarette?

by: Joel Makower

What would you say if I introduced you to an environmentally friendly cigarette — one made of organically grown tobacco, with organic cotton filters, rolled in eco-friendly paper, all manufactured with renewable energy, with a portion of proceeds going to environmental charities?

Continue reading "Introducing . . . The Eco-Friendly Cigarette?" »

December 17, 2007

"Design Thinking" for Business and Strategy Innovation

 by:Idris Mootee


Continue reading ""Design Thinking" for Business and Strategy Innovation" »

Advertising During Recession

by: Ilya Vedrashko

Buckle up.

Washington Post (Nov 26, 2007): "Widespread expectations of a recession could be self-fulfilling because of how financial markets and mainstream America are interconnected. If investors are sufficiently convinced a recession is ahead, they would be reluctant to lend money to businesses that want to expand, making it so."

Continue reading "Advertising During Recession" »

adults' views on privacy (new PEW report)

by: danah boyd

PEW has a new report out on adults and privacy: Digital Footprints. It's a solid report on the state of adults' perception of privacy wrt the internet. Of course, what humors me is that adults are saying one thing and doing another.

Continue reading "adults' views on privacy (new PEW report)" »

Must-Watch Video: "Free: The Past and Future of a Radical Price"

by: Guy Kawasaki

Now that you’re a nanotechnology expert, here’s the next trend to study: Free. This is a video of Chris Anderson discussing his next book. Chris is the editor of Wired and author of The Long Tail. Kudos to whoever a Nokia decided to put this keynote online for the rest of us. And kudos to Core77 for finding it via Nova.

Continue reading "Must-Watch Video: "Free: The Past and Future of a Radical Price"" »

December 16, 2007

Rendering Authenticity

by: John Caddell

I've been struggling through the new book “Authenticity” by Joseph Pine and James Gilmore, and I've been wondering why I've struggled. It's not a badly-written book, and I remember reading and liking some articles adapted from their earlier book, “The Experience Economy.” I'm also interested in the idea of authenticity (link to prior post). But nonetheless, I've read the book in fits and starts. It's been a chore.

Continue reading "Rendering Authenticity" »

Must-Read Nanotechnology Report

by: Guy Kawasaki

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Batelle Memorial Institute recently completed a report called "Productive Nanosystems: A Technology Roadmap." It's a complete analysis of this world-changing technology.

Original Post: http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2007/12/must-read-nanot.html

 

Continue reading "Must-Read Nanotechnology Report" »

SteelCase Talks Design Virtually

by: C. Sven Johnson

About a week ago I was lucky enough to get myself logged into Second Life to attend a question & answer session with representatives from Steelcase, the office furniture manufacturer. Unfortunately there won’t be an audio posted online, so I thought I’d post a couple of things I wrote down at the conclusion of the meeting and share them here; mostly for the benefit of any Industrial Designers that might surf through. But don’t quote me, eh? I went in assuming an audio file would be made available.

Continue reading "SteelCase Talks Design Virtually" »

December 15, 2007

What Does Green Mean?

by: John Winsor

Eric Wilson pens a wonderful article in today’s New York Times exploring what it means for a product to be truly green.

"No matter how sincere fashion designers may be in their efforts to embrace the green movement this season, consumers may find themselves perplexed by how to gauge the environmental impact of the many products that claim to be eco-friendly."

Continue reading "What Does Green Mean?" »

Philips Design Talks: Electric Tattoos

by: C. Sven Johnson

A few weeks back I wondered if Philips was going to get more involved in the Second Life community (reLink). Well, it just so happens I caught word that they’re conducting a discussion group later today inside the virtual world to discuss, interestingly enough, “SKIN: Tattoos” (Link).

Continue reading "Philips Design Talks: Electric Tattoos" »

valuing inefficiencies and unreliability

by: danah boyd

Two deeply embedded values in the world of technology development are efficiency and reliability. Companies pride themselves in maximizing efficiency and reliability and, for the most part, consumers agree. We like when our search engines produce results quickly and reliably. Yet, when it comes to social technologies, I suspect that efficiency and reliability are not the ideal metrics.

Continue reading "valuing inefficiencies and unreliability" »

Neuromarketing and Election 2008

by: Roger Dooley

Neuromarketing technology is relatively new on the scene, and has been employed primarily by deep-pockets corporate customers. Application to politics has been mostly general and academic; my 2006 piece, The Neuroscience of Political Marketing, discussed research by Emory’s Drew Westen that showed that committed party voters did not process information in a rational or analytical manner. (Not really breaking news…) Now, the massive budgets of the 2008 U.S. presidential election are bringing out the neuromarketers in droves.

Continue reading "Neuromarketing and Election 2008" »

December 14, 2007

The Trap of the Filesharing Debate

by: Nancy Baym

Sweden’s Hybris is an exemplary internet-savvy record label. The other day, on their blog, they reported on a seminar they held in Stockholm along with also-exemplary label Songs I Wish I Had Written, to discuss the future of music:

Continue reading "The Trap of the Filesharing Debate" »

Re-branding: an oxymoron?

by: John Caddell

I recently saw a to-do list on the wall at a company's marketing department. At the top of the list was "re-branding." And I've been thinking about that for some days. What is re-branding?

Continue reading "Re-branding: an oxymoron?" »

Serious Games As Customer Touchpoints

by: Eliane Alhadeff (also see Business & Games)



By 2010, says Gartner, 20% of global Tier 1 retailers will have some kind of marketing presence in online games and virtual worlds.

Continue reading "Serious Games As Customer Touchpoints" »

NPD Report 63% of Americans Playing Video Games

by: Karl Long

According to a new NPD Report video games are becoming and increasingly mainstream activity with a reported 63% of Americans playing video games, and 30% of them playing them more than last year. It’s rather amusing in many ways that “video games” essentially got hijacked by teenaged boys (both figuratively and literally) for the last decade (me being one of them). But with innovations in gameplay like the Wii, social games like Guitar Hero, and Rock Band video games are becoming again, just games, encouraging us to play, and play together.

Continue reading "NPD Report 63% of Americans Playing Video Games" »

December 13, 2007

Interpersonal Media Use and Relational Quality

by: Nancy Baym

It took way too long, but an article I wrote with several colleagues has just been published in the new issue of New Media & Society. This is a followup to the piece I published there in 2004 with Zhang and Lin (who are co-authors on this new one, along with Andrew Ledbetter and Adrianne Kunkel).

Continue reading "Interpersonal Media Use and Relational Quality" »

Five Innovation Traps

by: Idris Mootee

I have been spending a lot of time  lately with clients and friends who are working or are interested in the field of innovation and a few common themes came up. The most common ones are innovative ideas are often immediately obscured by current business concerns, organization solios and narrow visions. I was showing my clients how different companies approach and show them how we approach it. They were surprised to see that the "what" is very similar and the "how" is so different.

Continue reading "Five Innovation Traps" »

joint innovation presentation at INSEAD

by: Yann Gourvennec

INSEAD EMBA Campus in FontainebleauYesterday, 12th of December 2007 was a great day in my recent career as a lecturer in marketing and innovation which started last April with the 360° analysis of the marketing of ICT products and services (click here to access the files). Indeed, I was invited by Pr Manuel Sosa to pitch on the subject of joint innovation at Orange business services, in order to present our activities in front of the students of the executive MBA of INSEAD.

Continue reading "joint innovation presentation at INSEAD" »

Word of Mouth Versus Key Influencers

by: Guy Kawasaki

This summary of an article from the December issue of the Journal of Advertising Research (good luck finding the issue online because I couldn’t) says that common word-of-mouth advertising by regular folks is more powerful than “key influencers.” Which is to say that sucking up to A-list bloggers may not be all that it’s cracked up to be. It seems like it’s bad day for celebrity endorsements.

Continue reading "Word of Mouth Versus Key Influencers" »

MacArthur Series on Digital Media and Learning (it's live!)

by: danah boyd

I am very very very pleased to announce that the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Series on Digital Media and Learning is now out in the world and ready for your affection. The purpose of the series is to "examine the effect of digital media tools on how people learn, network, communicate, and play, and how growing up with these tools may affect a person's sense of self, how they express themselves, and their ability to learn, exercise judgment, and think systematically."

Continue reading "MacArthur Series on Digital Media and Learning (it's live!)" »

December 12, 2007

Serious Games Expanding the Creative Story Telling Art

by: Eliane Alhadeff

Extreme AI Making Film 2 Game A Serious Business

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Continue reading "Serious Games Expanding the Creative Story Telling Art" »

10 Forces That Shape Headline Writing

by: Ilya Vedrashko

I remembered a great quote from an old colleague of mine: "The web is the only medium in which you must create content which impresses machines." This is especially true for headlines, and, increasingly, not only blog headlines.

Continue reading "10 Forces That Shape Headline Writing" »

Facebook's "Opt-out" Precedent

by: danah boyd

I've been watching the public outcry over Facebook's Beacon (social ads) program with great interest. For those who managed to miss this, Facebook introduced a new feature called Beacon. Whenever you visit one of their partners' sites, some of your actions were automagically sent to Facebook and published on your News Feed. The list of actions is unknown, although through experimentation folks have learned that they include writing reviews on Yelp, renting movies from Blockbuster, and buying things on certain sites.

Continue reading "Facebook's "Opt-out" Precedent" »

Green May Be Ho-Hum for the Holidays, But It's Here to Stay

by: David Wigder

So far, this holiday season has seen a rather muted push on green by retailers, both in terms of the products they sell and the messages they communicate to consumers. Marshal Cohen, Chief Industry Analyst at NPD Group, recently suggested that such lack of enthusiasm by retailers reflects waning interest in green.  Cohen stated: “It’s basically a card that a lot of people played while it was hot and trendy…and it got overplayed.” 

Continue reading "Green May Be Ho-Hum for the Holidays, But It's Here to Stay" »

December 11, 2007

More on "The Radiohead Economy"

by: Nancy Baym

Before it slips away, I wanted to draw attention to this excellent article in the Toronto Globe and Mail about the interpersonal elements of the Radiohead pricing experiment. It draws on an article I’ve used often when I teach nonverbal communication about tipping, which I thought was a clever link on the writer’s part:

Continue reading "More on "The Radiohead Economy"" »

Why is Twitter Exploding? Because It's a Conversation Ecosystem.

by: David Armano

Lots of chatter happening round the blogosphere regarding Twitter, between Forrester's Peter Kim and Jeremiah (also of Forrester).

Continue reading "Why is Twitter Exploding? Because It's a Conversation Ecosystem." »

Mechanical Critters, an Interview with Chico Bicalho

by: Design Translator

About 6 months ago I discovered the work of Brazilian designer Chico Bicalho in, of all places, the Artist village of Leura in the Blue Mountains of Australia. I was in a rush, but the mechanical critter’s uniqueness probed my consciousness, and drove me to seek out the designer of this wonderful product.

Continue reading "Mechanical Critters, an Interview with Chico Bicalho" »

Product Placement Problems

by: John Winsor

I was surprised by Louise Story's article in yesterday's New York Times entitled, "So That's Why They Drink Coke on TV" in which she mentioned that the FCC is considering investigating whether or not product integration dupes consumers.

Continue reading "Product Placement Problems" »

Animating the future of population and cities

by: David Jennings

One of those happy synchronicities has alerted me to two different ways of presenting information information about population growth. And, to compound the coincidence, the same topic was raised in a discussion with David Puttnam that I attended in the same week as I discovered them.

Continue reading "Animating the future of population and cities" »

Lead Nurturing - Dating for B2B Companies?

by: Jon Miller

No one enjoys blind dates. Whether you’re introduced by friends, the Internet, or your neighborhood matchmaker, it’s nerve-wracking to meet for the first time.

Conversely, everyone loves weddings. The flowers, the tradition, the drunken dancing at the reception, you can find something you like.

Continue reading "Lead Nurturing - Dating for B2B Companies?" »

I Blame the Public - the Death of Empathy

by: Lynette Webb

This quote is extracted from a column India Knight wrote in The Times, that I found via www.psfk.com/2007/11/web-20-and-trial-by-the-masses.html
As Jessica from PSFK said… “the death of empathy - is anybody else terrified?”. In a word, yes.

Continue reading "I Blame the Public - the Death of Empathy" »

December 10, 2007

Leadership Mindset and Sustainability Success

by: Joel Makower

What is the stuff from which sustainability leaders are made?

It's a question that applies to individuals and organizations alike, and can be vexing for both. When one scans the landscape of companies seen to be sustainability leaders, questions quickly emerge: What do they have in common? How did they get there? What was the role of their leadership team, and of everyone below them, in achieving sustainability success?

Continue reading "Leadership Mindset and Sustainability Success" »

Web Shows What We Have Chosen to Care about

by: Lynette Webb

I’ve always been fascinated by efforts to map cyberspace… most maps seem to focus on the physical network connections but the ones I find the most interesting are those that try to map the diversity and connections between content. This quote nicely articulates why.

Continue reading "Web Shows What We Have Chosen to Care about" »

Draft Business Model Innovation Manual (beta version)

by: Alexander Osterwalder

Yesterday I finished a draft for a simple business model innovation manual co-financed by La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia and DOTARS. In the spirit of open innovation I am sharing this "beta version" online to trigger your feedback.

Draft Business Model Manual (beta version): How to Describe and Improve your Business Model to Compete Better (pdf)

Continue reading "Draft Business Model Innovation Manual (beta version)" »

December 9, 2007

Dashboard Spy: A Blog About Business Dashboards

by: Ilya Vedrashko

If you are into interfaces and analytics and visualizations, you will like Dashboard Spy, a fairly new blog that already has amassed dozens of screenshots of executive dashboards, including indicators of advertising effectiveness.

Continue reading "Dashboard Spy: A Blog About Business Dashboards" »

The Renewable Electron Economy Part IX: What is Renewable Energy Anyway?

by: Michael Hoexter

I’ve been posting  on the Electron Economy/Renewable Electron Economy for the past 9 months but have been relying on the Justice Potter Stewart definition (“knowing it when I see it”) of renewable energy. Most people tend to define renewable energy by listing certain natural resources: “Oh, its wind, solar, geothermal, wave, tides, etc.”

Continue reading "The Renewable Electron Economy Part IX: What is Renewable Energy Anyway?" »

Bug Labs and The Long Tail of Gadgets

by: Dominic Basulto

Earlier in the week, I had the unique opportunity to hear Peter Semmelhack, CEO of New York-based Bug Labs, describe how his start-up company was radically disrupting the traditional consumer electronics industry. Using a modular, open source approach, Bug Labs is focused on bringing the Long Tail of Gadgets to everyday consumers.

Continue reading "Bug Labs and The Long Tail of Gadgets" »

December 8, 2007

Swarmteams: Capturing the Buzz of Trusted Fans

by: David Jennings 

swarmteams.gif

If you've read my bookBuy Net, Blogs and Rock'n'Roll from Amazon.com, seen my presentation slides, or have just been following this blog reasonably closely, you will know that I'm a sucker for biological metaphors for discovery. I use these metaphors particularly in connection with information foraging and with the idea of people 'pollinating' social networks by spreading the word about their favourites on their profiles and blogs with widgets and playlists.

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Brand New Day Word of Mouth: Madison Ave.--Are You Listening? - BusinessWeek

by: David Polinchock

Reading through the blogworld today and came across this posting by David Kiley over at Brand New World.
Here'€™s an idea to save traditional media. What if marketers and agencies viewed every ad they create and buy as a medium for word-of-mouth.

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December 7, 2007

Driving Strategic Change at Amazon.com

by: Idris Mootee



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A Virtual World-Based PLM for the Fashion Industry {Updated}

by: C. Sven Johnson

Now this is interesting. From the SLNN site (Link):

The Fashion Research Institute (FRI) in conjunction with IBM is developing a product lifecycle management solution for the fashion industry that specifically addresses the industry’s unique needs, cutting time to market. Designers will be able to access 3-D tools from within SL or Open Sim to create their fashion product. The 3-D models of the design can be shown in a virtual showroom. Everyone who has a share in the product will be available to review the design: product managers, designers, design directors, merchandizers, costers, executives, sales staff and show room managers. After the creative vision has been finalized, factory specifications are created that will enable the item to be manufactured in real life.

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A Moment of Truth for Digital Agencies

by: David Armano

OK, deep breath. Adage recently published an article which asserted that “interactive agencies have not yet proven they have the capability to manage brand strategy.“ On top of that Forrester released their first Marketing Wave report which Critical Mass was included in.

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December 6, 2007

Usability Is King and Experience Is the Product

by: Idris Mootee

Transcendent product design is both a matter of strategy and philosophy. The most common reason product development has gone wrong is that people stop at the worst time--when the solutions are most convoluted. It is about going beyond that point to think about the experiences people are having and what jobs they want to get done.

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HomeTips: There's a Lot to Like

by: Guy Kawasaki

hometips_logo.jpgGoogle announced the winner of the Adsense Story Contest today: Hometips. This is a site that features free content concerning home improvement, remodeling, repair, redecorating, and do-it-yourself projects. For example, here are tips for hanging Christmas lights.

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An Important New Resource for Improving Innovation

by: John Caddell

Upon first reading this month's Harvard Business Review, I skated over “Breakthrough Thinking Inside the Box” (free link). I was probably too wrapped up in the storytelling article. Or I was concerned that this was another “strategic secret in 3000 words or less.”

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Phizzpop Gets Fuzzy

by: David Armano

I'm a big believer that creativity can and often does come from anywhere. So it came as no surprise to me that at last night's Phizzpop design challenge, the firm that ended winning the challenge was not a creative agency, but a technical integration shop. Clarity, who's winning design solution (above) bested well known creative shops such as Tribal DDB and included solid ideas, with a great user experience and even a prototyped iPhone concept—all done in two days.

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December 5, 2007

The World According to Smagg

by: Alain Thys

Serendipity is the art of finding something while looking for something else. Yet the way Christian Smagg became a contributor on the Futurelab blog is a beautiful example of how you can find without even looking at all. 

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Some Random Thoughts on the Biz

by: David Polinchock

While I think that I give pretty good presentations, I am known to be a little long-winded at times. So it was a real challenge for me last week when I presented at the NY Advertising Club Meetup and I had just 5 minutes to present. So I squeezed six points into those 5 minutes and got a very good response from the audience. Sparked some good debate too, which I always enjoy doing! So, here were the points I made and if you want to hear the stories behind these points, you’ll have to see my next presentation!

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Bubble 2.0 Video

by: Karl Long

LOL, is it me or is this guy taking some swipes at scoble:

“blogging even if your wrong” when scoble was talking about search and then the closing classic picture of scoble leaving the apple store in triumph with the iPhone?

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"Information Access in a Networked World"

by: danah boyd

Last month, I participated on a panel at Pearson Publishing along with three others from MacArthur's digital learning initiatives. I gave a talk there about the future of information access and I wanted to make the crib available for all who might find it of interest:

"Information Access in a Networked World"

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December 4, 2007

Ten Habits of Innovation Laggards

by: Idris Mootee

I was going to write a piece on the ten successful habits of highly innovative companies, but then I thought there are enough written about it. May be I should write something on the "10 Habits of Innovation Laggards" which I think is far more interesting. For many highly innovative organizations, they are usually successful in all of the following:

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H&M Virtual Dressing Room - Now This is Cool

by: Scott Goodson

picture_2_2.pngIf you have a moment check the H&M virtual dressing room. It's an easy way to see how a garment will look on you, since you can change the shape of the model. Extremely smart design behind this very useful application. Well done. (Click image to enlarge).

Original Post: http://scottgoodson.typepad.com/my_weblog/2007/12/hm-virtual-dres.html

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Watch the Frog ... Scott Goodson Joins

by: Alain Thys

Early 2000, I ran a pitch for the global advertising budget of a dot-com I had joined after leaving Reebok.  There was about $50 million to burn, so our pot of honey attracted some big flies. 

Still, amidst behemoths like DDB New York (who won the award for worst pitch ever), Saatchi and something big I frankly don't remember, there was a small, loud, upstart agency from Amsterdam making some serious waves.

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Who Clicks on Ads? And What Might This Mean?

by: danah boyd

Advertising is the bread and butter of the web, yet most of my friends claim that they never click on ads, typically using a peacock tone that signals their pride in being ad-averse. The geekier amongst them go out of their way to run Mozilla scripts to scrape ads away, bemoaning the presence of consumer culture. Yet, companies increasingly rely on ad revenue to turn a profit and, while clicking on ads ?may? be declining, it certainly hasn't gone away. This raises a critical question: Who are the people that click on ads?

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December 3, 2007

On Accountability, now on Slideshare

by: Alain Thys

Apparently the guys at Marketing3 in the Netherlands liked my I am the media slide-show to Chris Anderson enough to ask me back for more.  This means that this year, I had the honour of sharing the stage with Charles Leadbeater and Andrew Keen (for a video review of their keynotes click here and here).

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Recession and Online Ad Spending

by: Idris Mootee

Everyone is talking about a recession and how it could hammer those media companies and ad agencies that rely on advertising next year, curtailing opportunity for reinvention when the industry needs it most.

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Six Apart Sells LiveJournal. Baroo??

by: danah boyd

In 2005, I penned an article in Salon ("Turmoil in blogland") to address my concerns over Six Apart's acquisition of LiveJournal.

When Six Apart bought LiveJournal, it did not simply purchase a tool -- it bought a culture. LJ challenges a lot of assumptions about blogging, and its users have different needs. They typically value communication and identity development over publishing and reaching mass audiences.

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Climate Change and the Cusp of Lost Opportunity

by: Joel Makower

On the eve of this week's UN Climate Change Conference in Bali, two new reports show how tantalizingly able we are to reduce our climate footprint -- and how frustratingly far we are from taking the needed steps to do so.

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December 2, 2007

Boyd's Law of Social Network Sites

by: danah boyd

::giggle:: While I was off the grid, Cory Doctorow created a law of social network sites and named it after me:

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The Coming Convergence of Email and Social Networks

by: Idris Mootee

Facebook are still attracting tens of thousands of new users each month and Google is trying pushing the social networking its OpenSocial initiative. Not long ago Microsoft spent $240 million to buy a 1.6 % of Facebook (that gives Facebook a valuation of $15 billion and there's almost no room for any option play for employees with this valuation.) Just when Facebook thinks that its 50-plus million users can now be mined for ad dollars. They received a harsh lesson and realized just how tricky it is to use the demographic and behavior information about its readers for targeted advertising. Everyone is thinking hard about innovative ways that can make social media the answer for advertising 2.0, which is a very wrong starting point in the first place.

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Must see video: "We Think" vs."The Cult of the Amateur"

by: Alain Thys

Have you ever wondered what would happen if  We Think's Charles Leadbeater would meet Silicon Valley's self-proclaimed anti-christ Andrew Keen who's written The Cult of the Amateur ?

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Venture Capitalist Sees Growing Investment Opportunities in Serious Games

by: Eliane Alhadeff (via Business & Games)

What makes Serious Games attractive to investors

Via: Richard Carey - Digital Media Solutions, Serious Games & Learning Smiluations
 

As anticipated on my prior posts focused on Serious Games Market Size, funding has started to become available from foundations, governmental agencies, non-profits and venture capitalists.

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December 1, 2007

Papervision3D: Geometry in a Flash

by: C. Sven Johnson

I caught word of Papervision3D via a post on the design:related social network. I’m impressed. If you watched the video, you probably are too. But more importantly, with recent reviews of Kinset’s virtual Brookstone space (Link 1, Link 2), I can’t help but think that a Flash- or Shockwave-based solution might not be a better approach for targeted e-commerce.

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Green Marketing on Social Networks

by: David Wigder

Participation in social networks continues to grow seemingly without bounds as more people seek to connect, share and collaborate with likeminded individuals online. Today, hundreds of millions of online users have already signed up, with an increasing number belonging to more than one network.

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