I was fortunate this week to attend the World Innovation Forum in New York City. What an amazing experience. The speakers were great and the people I met were all so inspiring. Over the next few days I will share a few of my take-aways. Here is an outline fo the three days. I have so many things I want to write about.

Monday: The day before the event, I attended afield trip to Pfizer and Virgin US. The trip was let by !WhatIF!. It was interesting to observe the contrast between Pfizer and Virgin. The culture and their approach to innovation was so different. The folks at ?WhatIF! did a great job and provided some wonderful, thought provoking insights.

Tuesday: Speakers included Michael Porter,Andreas Weigend, Chip Heith, Buz Stone (co-founder of Twitter), and others. Chip Heith is a great speaker!

Wednesday: Seth Godin, Robert Burnner and others. I cannot say enough about Seth Godin. He also joined us for Lunch. This was a much smaller group and provided an opportunity for great insights.

It was amazing to hear from these great speakers and to compare notes with people in other industries. More to follow.

During my workout today, I listened to a recent DFJ Entrepreneurial Though Leaders Seminar. This is a podcast that is co-sponsored by BASES (a student entrepreneurship group), Standford Technology Ventures Program, and The Department of Management Science and Engineering (Standford University). The speaker for this session was John Seely Brown.  John has a technical background, having served as a Senior Scientist at Xerox. His bio is impressive, but I was far more interested in his discussion about the ‘Collaborative Innovation and a Pull Economy‘. I was so impressed by his remarks that I download his latest book,  “The Power of Pull: How Small Moves, Smartly Made, Can Set Big Things in Motion” (Sponsored link).   

In the space I have here, I cannot begin to discuss everything Mr. Brown discussed. His comments, contrasting the 20th century business model, to what will be required in the 21st century are insightful. In a couple of paragraphs I thought I would attempt to tie a couple of his comments back to education, and even ‘new media’.

First, an observation: The 20th century model is founded on principles taught by Alfred Chandler. Mr. Brown called it the ‘Push Economy’. This model is hierarchical, with a ‘center-out’ approach to business. The goal of business in this model is “Scalable Efficiency”. Mr. Brown noted that the infrastructure was key to creating this economy (roads, cars, trucks, ships, and airplanes .. etc). Organizational architecture were built around this infrastructure, leveraging it, generating scalable efficiency. The goals of this were (and largely still are):

- Predictability
- Hierarchy
- Control
- Organizational routines
- Minimizing variance (can you say Six Sigma).

He said, “Build a lot, use transportation mechanisms to distribute it, bah bah bah”.  What he said next ties back to my last post. He briefly contrast the 20th century education system to this model. He said:

Our K through 12 schools are built on scalable efficiency, a factory model. Basically, we can predict for you what things you’re going to need for ten to 15 years away, and we’re going to build you a stock of assets for you to learn, to acquire so that eventually, you get to use them, very much like how corporations work.

This reminded me of a chapter in Linchpin: Are You Indispensable? (sponsored link) by Seth Godin: “Indoctrination: How We Got Here”. The chapter starts with this quote:

We’ve been taught to be a replaceable cog in a giant machine. We’ve been taught to consume as a shortcut to hapiness. We’ve been taught not to care about our jobs or our customers. And we’ve been taught to fit in”

There has been a fundamental and long-term change that will ripple through the business world for the next few years. In the new economy, the Pull Economy, will be built around ‘digital infrastructure’ and collaborative innovation. What we call social media today is just one element of the pull economy. This change will require that we think differently about everything from intellectual property to education. Take a few minutes to watch the video and consider what he has to say. I know it made me think hard about many things. I look forward to reading Mr. Brown’s book.

Watch the video and let me know what you think.

Rick

I have been reading “Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?” by Seth Godin. This is an outstanding book. Today I came across the following comment. I apologize that I do not have a page reference, I am reading it on my Kindle. 

Wikipedia and the shared knowledge of the Internet make domain knowledge on its own worth significantly less than it use to be. Today, if all you have to offer is that you know a lot of reference book information, you lose, because the Internet knows more than you do.

Depth of Knowledge combined with good judgment is worth a lot. Depth of knowledge combined with diagnostic skills or nuanced insight is worth a lot, too. Knowledge alone, though, I’d rather get faster and cheaper from an expert I find online.

… Depth of knowledge is rarely sufficient, all by itself, to turn someone into a linchpin.

I hope this hits you between the eyes. It did me. Now, I would like you to do is to think of this in terms of how we educate our children. Get that really clear in your head. Got it? Now, hold that thought for a minute. 

Last week, I attended the 140 Character Conference in New York City. This was an amazing, wonderful event, put on by Jeff Pulver (@jeffpulver).  I should take a timeout to blog about how it. It had an impact on me that I can’t put into words. I will say this: If you have an opportunity to attend a #140conf, GO. Just do it. You will not regret it.

Now back to education. During the first day of the conference, Chris Lehmann of the Science Leadership Academy in Philadelphia, PA gave the following presentation .. listen close: 

I am going to keep this short. Yes, children need to learn to locate information. Unfortunately, what we seem to do best, or at least what we seem to focus on, is training them to take test. Chris is right, we teach subjects instead of children. We train instead of teach. We need to teach them to use their minds and to create. The future can be bright, but we must change how we educate. I love the message. Get involved in your local schools or with our youth. This is important.

Rick

I spoke to a group on Wednesday evening on the subject of ‘Time Management’.  I used Keynote on my Mac (I love Keynote).  Just before the presentation was set to begin, I broke one of my personal rules and decided to check out (‘experiment’) with an iPhone app.  What does that have to do with the presentation? The app that I decided to checkout was Keynote Remote.  I already have a remote that I use for presentations. It connects via USB and does a great job. I decided to check it out anyway. What a peasant surprise.

This is a great applications. Some of the key features:

- Swipe to advance slides (forward or backwards)
- View presenter notes can be displayed on the iPhone
- Landscape or portrait view (not perfect, but it works)

You need to be connected to WIFI to use it, but it is great. (See the link below for other options). 

The app cost 99 cents, but it was well worth the investment. I recommend you read some of the reviews that have been posted on iTunes. I have only used it for a few days, but so far, I plan to continue using it. Now I am checking out similar apps for PowerPoint. Any suggestions?

Rick

Technorati Tags: Keynote, Apple, iPhone, App, Presentation

Have you ever thought about how much data is generated for consumption on the internet? To be honest, I have a hard time comprehending these numbers: Try 988 billion Gigabytes of digital information, all created by the end of 2010. This includes user-generated content by some “1.6 billion internet users.” (See “How much data do we generate?”. Also check out the running counter here).

In addition to the digital content that we generate for consumption on the web, consider all of the data that is generated for science, engineering, finance … and so forth. For example, according to an InformationWeek article, research at CERN’s new Hadron Collider will produce “roughly 15 million Gigabytes of data annually.” Think about the implications for storage and bandwidth. It’s amazing.

Rick

Photo: bionicteaching

I can’t believe I am blogging about this on the day after the iPad officially hit the street. I received an email the following email from Amazon yesterday:

As a Kindle subscriber to New York Times, you might like to know that effective April 2, 2010, the New York Times has raised its price to $19.99/month for new subscribers.

As an existing subscriber to New York Times, you will continue to be billed at the previous rate of $13.99/month for six more months (until October 2nd, 2010) after which you will be billed at the monthly rate then in effect.  We believe that the Kindle edition of New York Times continues to provide excellent value for customers with a free 14 day trial period, wireless delivery via Whispernet, no long-term commitments, and substantial savings vs. regular print subscription rates.

As always you are free to cancel your subscription at any time.  If you are still in the 14 day free trial period of your subscription you will not be charged, otherwise you will receive a prorated refund for the unused portion of your subscription. 

I enjoy reading the Times. The new rate is still less than what it would cost me to have it delivered to my home (I can subscribe for about $7.40/week on nytimes.com). And since I travel a great deal, I value being able to access the daily issue from any location. That said, I find I am getting more and more news via other channels and at lower prices. It will be had to justify this new price. What do you think? Would you pay the new rate?

Rick

Between travel, family activities, and a couple of bad days with the flu, I have not been able to post for a few days. I have been able to read and spend some time thinking about education. I will share that in a separate entry.

While researching the topic, I came across this great video clip from The Ohio State University. This is a project for 1st year engineering students.

Learning does not need to be boring .. it can be engaging and fun. Why is this simple principle so difficult for so many.

Rick

Check out this Web Browser market share data: From April 2009 until the end of February 2010, Internet Explorer lost 6 points. Market share for other Browsers was flat, with modest gains in a few cases. The biggest winner: Google Chrome which appears to have take share almost exclusively from Microsoft’s Internet Explorer.  

Chrome is relatively new, having been released in September of 2008. I am sure that most of us expected it to be successful. While 5.6% sounds small, the trend is significant. As for Firefox, it is not growing like it did early in the decade, but I would not write it off. Read the history of Firefox; it has been around for a while with version 1.0 coming out in ~2001.

Perhaps you are thinking, “Well, Micorsoft has this large position; 6 percent is nothing.”  Check out this July 2004 InfoWorld article which says IE had a share of greater than 95% early in the decade.  Now instead of a 6 point share loss, we are talking about 34 points in 7 years. Ouch.

What’s going on here and what can we learn? While there are many lessons, I want to comment on three: Innovation, Focus, Velocity and Risk Taking. 

- Innovation: Many (most?) of the Browser innovation we use today originated in smaller companies or as browser add-in’s. These innovations targeted user needs. It is not that big companies cannot innovate – they can and do, but small companies are usually faster, they are hungry and their culture promotes risk taking.  When the big guy becomes fat and happy, the smaller player usually moves in and eats his lunch (i.e. take market share). I am not saying Google is small, but they are behaving like a small company in how they develop new products.

Note: There are several Firefox add-on that I cannot live without and that could easily become standard features for a browser. (I guess that would be a good topic for a future post). 

- Focus: Big companies often become distracted. Management sees new ‘growth opportunities’, loosing focus on what really matters (Think of the recent problems at Toyota). Focus is often overlooked as a key to success in business and life. Project team will be more successful if they focus; business will be more successful if they are focused on what matters. It is possible to bring focus to teams inside large organization. 

- Product Development Velocity: Microsoft is not known for being fast to market. They have deep pockets and are wiling to be patient. This strategy has worked, but this data suggest that it may not be sustainable. Rapid prototyping and involving customers early works. Get something in the customers hands early! I live in a world where it takes far too long to develop products. Speed to market has has many benefits and is a competitive advantage.

Risk Taking: Remember this phrase: ‘Fail early and fail often’. Don’t be afraid to change directions. Be willing to take well considered risk. Will there be failures? Most certainly. Organizations that are not wiling to take risk spend most of their time in a state of paralysis which slows or even kills innovation.

Organizations that put these principles in place can increase their chance of success. Yes, it take talent, capital and other factors, but these four keys can make or break an organization.

What do you think?

Rick

Yesterday I attended the Crystal Classic Show Choir contest in Fairfield, Ohio.  (I had a great time, but that is another post). It was a 90 minute drive each way which allowed me time to listen to a few presentations from TED.   One that hit the mark for me was a recent presentation by James Cameron. It was excellent and had me scrambling to take notes:). Before I share a couple of my thoughts on this, I recommend you listen to this one:

- Far too many people do not accomplish their dreams. Perhaps the most significant barriers are self-imposed. Yes, society and those around you may tell you that ‘you can’t', but the reality is that we usually limit ourselves. Mr. Cameron’s curiosity lead him to live his dreams. He asked questions, then followed the path that ensued to live his passion.

This reminds me of Gary Vaynerchuk’s comments about ‘listen to your gut’ and that you ‘don’t have to settle.’ See his book: Crush It!: Why NOW Is the Time to Cash In on Your Passion (affiliate link).

- Speaking about not putting limits on yourself, he said that you should, “take risk”.  He spoke of NASA’s “Failure is not an option” philosophy and said that, “failure has to be an option” if we are going to take a “leap of faith”.  He said, “failure is an option, but fear is not.”

Failure is a great teacher; pick yourself up, dust yourself off and move on. Taking the approach that failure is not an option kills innovation. More on that in a future post.   

- Mr. Cameron talked about trying to ‘understand the world and the limits of possibilities’. Instead of looking for why you can’t, ask what you want to achieve and how you go about it. 

- I enjoyed his comments about creating technology to make his dream happen. He was speaking about the need for new technology to make his dream happen when exploring ‘the deep’.  Listen, you may not create ‘new technology’, but you may need to innovate and re-engineer how you go about your life and your business. Don’t be afraid to think outside of the walls of your current life in your effort to live your dream.

- He said, “Curiosity it he most powerful thing you own; imagination is a force that can actually manifest a reality. I love how he did this … you can too.

Perhaps technology has robbed us of ‘creativity’ and ‘dream’ time. Turn off the TV and find time to dream and consider goals and possibilities.

- On leadership, Mr Cameron said that he learned the importance of respecting your team. He said that this respect is more important than all of the laurels of the world. 

What did you take from his presentation? 

Rick

Wow, what a story. I first heard about this on “Today In Social Media“, hosted by Clayton Morris.  Picture this as part of your business model: Charge businesses to remove negative word of mouth from your high traffic web site. According to allegations, this actually happened!  

Let me back up and fill in the blanks. Have you heard of Yelp.com. The site allows average people like you and me to provide reviews for restaurants, spas, bars, stores and other retail storefronts. I have personally provided reviews of restaurants. It is a great tool for locating places of interest. I love Monocle. It allows the user of an iPhone (or BlackBerry and other smartphones) to visually locate site of interest. I have the site to locate specific stores, restaurants, and other entertainment. It is great to read what others share about places of interest, especially people in my network.

Now back to those ugly allegations: Reports are that Yelp has offered to remove (or modify?) negative reviews in exchange for a fee. Yahoo reported that Yelp would remove ‘bad’ reviews in return for money. “Advertise with Yelp and your star rating goes up.”  If this is true, it is sad! The truth will certainly come out in the court system, but this is disturbing. Can you trust the feedback on Yelp if it is being ‘adjusted’ based on a fee? What do you think? I am hopeful that this is somehow a mistake. 

Rick
Image via CrunchBase