Can you train people to innovate? Financial analyst Barry Ritholtz has shared a helpful slide set titled “Innovation can be trained” that’s worth reading. Printing and then tacking individual slides to your cube walls can be used as a daily reminder that organizations can create cultures of innovation. It’s based on the work The Innovator’s DNA by Jeff Dyer, Hal Gregersen and Clayton Christensen.
499 Comments
Tomi Engdahl says:
How to Get Girls Into Coding
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/01/opinion/sunday/how-to-get-girls-into-coding.html
A huge nationwide push is underway, funded by the nonprofit Code.org’s corporate and billionaire donors, from Amazon and Google to Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg, to introduce American schoolchildren to coding and to redefine it as a basic skill to be learned alongside the three R’s. Code.org’s curriculum has been adopted by 20,000 teachers from kindergarten to 12th grade.
But if coding is the new lingua franca, literacy rates for girls are dropping: Last year, girls made up 18.5 percent of A.P. computer science test-takers nationwide, a slight decrease from the year before. In three states, no girls took the test at all. An abysmal 0.4 percent of girls entering college intend to major in computer science. And in 2013, women made up 14 percent of all computer science graduates — down from 36 percent in 1984.
The imbalance persists in the tech industry. Just this week, Google released data showing that women account for just 17 percent of its tech employees. The problem is not only getting girls to computer class, but keeping them there.
So what if, instead of trying to guess at what might get girls interested in technology, we looked at what’s already on their screens?
While parents often worry about recreational “screen time,” some educators now believe that gaming could be a way to get girls interested in coding, and even to increase the numbers of girls in STEM — science, technology, engineering and math — classes and schools. Reshma Saujani, founder of the nonprofit organization Girls Who Code, said, “We have to meet them where they are.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
“Roads? Where we’re going, we don’t need roads.”
http://businessvalueexchange.com/2014/03/13/roads-going-dont-need-roads/?utm_source=taboola&utm_medium=referral
eight big promises of the information technology revolution
The Internet Will Create a “New Economy”
The Internet Will Create a World Community
The Digital Age Will Make Us All Get Smarter
The Digital Generation Will Save Us
Digital Technologies Will Narrow the Wealth Gap
The Internet Will Spread Democracy
The Internet Will Make Us Better Informed
Everyone Gets to Be a Publisher
What is evident is that while the effect was as described, the article’s author points out that there are also negative consequences. I think it is important for people looking at the seismic changes that are coming from the New Style of IT to understand both the potential benefits and downsides – for individuals, communities, businesses and societies – from new technology.
It’s easy to point out the gap between the vision and day-to-day reality, since there will always be a gap.
Tomi Engdahl says:
An Economic Explanation For Why DRM Cannot Open Up New Business Model Opportunities
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20070301/005837/economic-explanation-why-drm-cannot-open-up-new-business-model-opportunities.shtml
Economic growth occurs whenever people take resources and rearrange them in ways that are more valuable.
Every generation has perceived the limits to growth that finite resources and undesirable side effects would pose if no new recipes or ideas were discovered. And every generation has underestimated the potential for finding new recipes and ideas.
Note that it’s the non-scarce products, the recipes and the ideas, that helps expand the value of the limited resources, the ingredients.
DRM is fundamentally opposed to this concept. It is not increasing value for the consumer in any way, but about limiting it. It takes the non-scarce goods, the very thing that helps increase value, and constrains them. Those non-scarce goods are what increase the pie and open up new opportunities for those who know where to capture the monetary rewards of that value (within other limited resources). DRM, on the other hand, holds back that value and prevents it from being realized. It shrinks the pie — and no successful business models come out of providing less value and shrinking the overall pie. Fundamentally, DRM cannot create a successful new business model. It can only contain one.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Future Of Music Business Models (And Those Who Are Already There)
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20091119/1634117011/future-music-business-models-those-who-are-already-there.shtml
Tomi Engdahl says:
Marc Andreessen On How To Turn Impossible Ideas Into Successful Businesses
http://www.fastcompany.com/3029415/creative-conversations/marc-andreessen-on-how-to-turn-impossible-ideas-into-successful-businesses
His VC firm has backed Airbnb, Box, Facebook, Jawbone, Pinterest, Skype, and Twitter, among others. Now it has another hit–VR firm Oculus Rift, which Facebook is purchasing for $2 billion. We asked Marc Andreessen how a great creative idea can survive to become a tech success story.
Fast Company: How long do you think it takes for a truly significant technology to take hold?
Andreessen: The really big ones are generational. People are strange. On a micro level, everybody likes a new product, a new TV show, new software, a new smartphone. At that micro level, people love change. At the macro level, we hate change. Big, new ideas that challenge preconceptions make people really angry.
he founder, Palmer Luckey, is one of our Most Creative People in this issue. Can you walk me through the process of turning a creative idea like his into a business?
A couple of years ago, Palmer is in his garage tinkering around. And since he’s 17 at the time, he doesn’t know that VR’s “not possible,” right? But he does realize that a smartphone screen is amazing, and that new graphics cards and chips and new interconnection technologies and new gaming engines are all amazing.
We and his other partners just build a company around him.
Why does your firm focus so much on public relations? Your emphasis has changed the way other VC firms have to think about the subject.
The stuff the industry is doing today affects the whole world. It used to be that you could be HP or DEC or IBM, with 5,000 total customers and maybe 50,000 people paying attention
With the smartphone, we’ve shrunk the super- computer to a palm-sized device and made it available to everyone on the planet for $100. At Qualcomm, they predict that between 2013 and 2017, 7 billion smartphones will be sold. That’s amazing! That’s amazing! For a lot of those people, their smartphone will be the first computer they ever have, the first phone, the first connection to the Internet, the first way to learn online and organize politically and get accurate information and access to global markets.
“There’s still a view that technology is going to destroy all the jobs. So everyone’s going to be poor. The alternate view is that that view is entirely wrong.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
The report reveals: IT lags five months after the business requirements
According to a recent survey, nearly two-thirds ( 65 percent ) of IT decision-makers in Europe , the Middle East and Africa, feels that the business wishes it takes up to five months for the information management will be able to implement them.
Business and IT, the mismatches have important consequences for the organization ‘s performance , competitiveness and growth potential . IT decision-makers , the gap reduces the likelihood of innovation ( 39 per cent of respondents), reduces employee productivity (36 percent) and result in the loss of customers to competitors agile (33 per cent).
According to him, the solution is to increase investment in information management, which could affect the business and reduces delays.
VMware , the responses show that organizations need the right people in the right places to ensure that it supports the organization’s performance , competitiveness and growth potential of growth.
Source: http://www.tietoviikko.fi/kaikki_uutiset/selvitys+paljastaa+tietohallinto+laahaa+viisi+kuukautta+liiketoiminnan+vaatimusten+perassa/a991378
icheee.com says:
Hurrah, that’s what I was looking for, what a material!
present here at this web site, thanks admin of this web site.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Business for Engineers: ‘Almost Acceptable’ the New Good?
http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=36&doc_id=1322603&
Business is complicated and full of compromises, whether we like it or not, but some compromises make the whole system fail.
As engineers, we often focus our efforts on the details of a product design.
I’m not saying that every component of every product isn’t good. But to me, “product” means my entire experience, from researching for products to selecting candidate solutions to purchasing the chosen product to receiving it. For me, a failure in any part of this supply chain engagement results in, at best, an almost acceptable product.
I’ve recently encountered a series of almost acceptable products — not because the items themselves were poorly designed or manufactured, but because other aspects of the product experience were unacceptable.
These anecdotes illustrate three ways that products can become almost adequate: a change in production methods, a grossly inadequate datasheet, and shipping failures.
We haven’t considered the almost adequate design decisions that are all around us: the Christmas lights that might last a few dozen hours before they fail, “long-life” compact fluorescent light bulbs that fail as fast as their incandescent cousins, supermarket bagels that are moldy when the bag is opened only a few hours after they are bought. The list goes on and on.
There are some truly good products, but all too often we accept mediocrity. It’s time to do away with “almost adequate” and make “good” mean what it says.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Press release:
EU launches world’s largest civilian robotics programme – 240,000 new jobs expected
http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-14-619_en.htm
European Commission Vice President @NeelieKroesEU, says: “Europe needs to be a producer and not merely a consumer of robots. Robots do much more than replace humans – they often do things humans can’t or won’t do and that improves everything from our quality of life to our safety. Integrating robots into European industry helps us create and keep jobs in Europe.” (SPEECH/14/421)
President of euRobotics Bernd Liepert says: “SPARC will ensure the competitiveness of European robotics industries. Robot-based automation solutions are essential to overcome today’s most pressing societal challenges – from demographic change to mobility to sustainable production”.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The central planners will take money out of the productive economy and spend it on a corporate giveaway to favoured interests.
Is there an alternative way of stimulating research in a specific field for the public good?
Source: Comments at http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/14/06/03/1751215/eu-launches-worlds-largest-civilian-robotics-program-240000-new-jobs-expected
Tomi Engdahl says:
“Innovation sells,”
Source: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/06/04/cavium_sets_sights_on_intel_with_48core_soc/
Tomi Engdahl says:
How Greylock Partners Finds the Next Facebook
http://www.newsweek.com/2014/06/13/how-greylock-partners-finds-next-facebook-253329.html
Out of thousands of business plans Greylock sees each year, only 20 or so make it to a full partnership meeting. Of those, only half get funded.
Here’s one surprising lesson Biyani learned: If the partners start arguing about your pitch, you’re probably doing pretty well. That means they are intrigued enough to be grinding the details.
For a startup, getting Greylock’s backing means more than just an infusion of cash. “It’s like your company’s been blessed by the pope
Hard to imagine now, but there was a time when Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pandora and Tumblr were ideas that, to many, seemed crazy. But where others might see lunacy, Greylock has seen opportunity.
“When the idea is big enough and edgy enough—it’s either madness or genius,” says Hoffman. “What you are trying to figure out is which one it is.”
“There is a lot of mythology about how firms decide,”
Because they used to be entrepreneurs too, the partners know what it takes to go from scrappy idea to real business. “What would you pay to have someone in the room who has had to deal with all the situations you are dealing with and has done that at two of the most successful Internet companies of all time?”
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Boring Conference – the fascinating world of the mundane and ordinary
http://www.theguardian.com/society/shortcuts/2014/may/27/the-boring-conference-fascinating-world-mundane-ordinary-london
From domestic inkjet printers of 1999 to ice-cream-van chimes, speakers will hold forth on an array of mind-numbingly dull topics – and, it seems, the public can’t wait
So what makes the ideal boring speech? “The basic idea is that the theme needs to be boring, but the content shouldn’t be,” says Ward. “There has to be something in the topic that a speaker with a real enthusiasm for it can bring out and make interesting. In fact most things, if you look at them in enough detail, can become fascinating. There’s almost always something there.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
JAMES WARD: I LIKE BORING THINGS
A blog by James Ward
http://iamjamesward.com/
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Comic Sans creator explains how he made the world’s most-hated font
http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/shortcuts/2014/jun/04/comic-sans-creator-vincent-connare
Font inventor Vincent Connare spoke at the fourth annual Boring Conference, along with a man cooking pancakes on a couple of irons and an expert on Walkers crisps
Conference organiser James Ward accepts that booking speakers can be a delicate matter. “I always say the theme is boring but the content isn’t,” he says. But the name also inoculates the event against incidental tediousness. “If anything goes wrong,” says Ward, “I can kind of go: ‘Well, it did say on the ticket’.” And no one has ever complained about an insufficiency of tedium. “It would take a particular type of person to go to an event and enjoy it and then complain that they enjoyed it,” he says. “So I basically have a zero refunds policy.”
It all started in 2010, when Ward learned that something called the Interesting Conference had been cancelled, and jokingly tweeted that he would put on a Boring Conference instead. “The moral of the story is never to joke on the internet,” he said. “Someone will say: ‘That sounds good’, and then you’ll have to do it.”
If the speakers at Boring IV have anything in common, it’s that they are prepared to examine a potentially boring subject in such pitiless detail that it immediately becomes fascinating.
Tomi Engdahl says:
In the future, we live online algorithms, and we meet there for each other, such as in the physical world , Lappeenranta University of Technology , Professor Anssi Vanjoki envisioned .
In the future, we live online algorithms, and we meet there for each other, such as in the physical world , Lappeenranta University of Technology , Professor Anssi Vanjoki envisioned .
According to him, the people passing in the future so-called digital aura. It creates new possibilities and makes people ubiquitous , omnipresent .
Equipment level, this means that the wearable electronics will be everywhere.
” Undeveloped display technology is the only reason why smart phone is as it is ,”
Vanjoki predicts the future of this: The world is full of sensors and displays are everywhere. Screens is the windows through which one can move from place to place in an instant . I also saw billions of people become closer to each other.
Mobility should instead talk about their presence. Precision and ubiquitous computing is changing the world of work .
” We have had the snares of information technology . We are back to work 24 hours a day , ” Vanjoki described .
“Digital Experience strengthen the physical.”
Source: http://summa.talentum.fi/article/tv/uutiset/68999
Tomi Engdahl says:
Fujitsu Labs: Is Trend Open-Source or Cloud-Labor?
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1322629&
“Monozukuri innovation” in a collaborative economy and hyper-connected world loomed large at the Fujitsu Laboratories of America Technology Symposium at the Computer History Museum here on Wednesday. Fujitsu’s eighth annual event was themed “The Changing Landscape of Innovation: Open, Shared, and Democratized,” which keynote speaker Hideyuki Saso, president of Fujitsu Laboratories Ltd., and panelist Tomohiro Fujiwara, general manager of Fujitsu FSAS, coined as monozukuri innovation and defined as Fujitsu’s quest to use technology for society through human-centric innovation.
In other words, monozukuri, a Japanese manufacturing term that translates vaguely into craftsmanship and integrated manufacturing processes, gets an open-source and big-data update.
Fujiwara’s account of Fujitsu’s crowdsourcing as an internal innovation management tool within parameters of lifetime employment was in striking contrast with the plug-and-play sourcing models presented by fellow panelists Matt Cooper of oDesk and John Hoskins of Amazon Mechanical Turk.
By and large, panelists described open-source software as the engine behind the paradigm shift from traditional business models.
innovation over the last 30 years has been in digitization of things, and now the most interesting aspect is that of networking. “The new big players are the ones who will be providing infrastructure,”
Desai’s fellow panelist, Doug Cutting of Cloudera, said it’s hard to find an industry that’s not adopting digital technology. There are two concurrent revolutions, according to Cutting, the open-source revolution and the data revolution. Both are becoming mandates, using open-source software and harnessing the data.
patents in software are a “minefield you have to ignore and hope you don’t step on one. Software patents stifle innovation, are of no value, and help no one.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
The power of introverts
http://www.ted.com/talks/susan_cain_the_power_of_introverts
In a culture where being social and outgoing are prized above all else, it can be difficult, even shameful, to be an introvert. But, as Susan Cain argues in this passionate talk, introverts bring extraordinary talents and abilities to the world, and should be encouraged and celebrated.
Tomi Engdahl says:
a very specific aspect of well-being: freedom from fear of sharing one’s ideas:
How to Overcome the Fear of ‘Putting Yourself Out There’
http://www.thepowerofintroverts.com/2014/03/30/how-to-overcome-the-fear-of-putting-yourself-out-there/
In honor of Arianna Huffington’s marvelous book THRIVE, I want to write about a very specific aspect of well-being: freedom from fear of sharing one’s ideas.
“Not everyone is as comfortable as you are exposing their true feelings,”
So many fears, so many ideas worth sharing. What to do? Here are eight ideas to help you power through these disabling emotions.
1. Know that you’re in good company.
2. When it comes to social media, think self-expression, not self-promotion. Blogging and tweeting, if practiced properly, feel more like a creative project than an exercise in self-disclosure, even though of course they are both.
3. Coffee will deliver you from self-doubt. It gets you excited about new ideas and helps you ignore the chorus of judgers inside your head.
4. Train yourself to associate idea generation with pleasure.
5. Work alone (or “alone together” — for example, sitting by yourself in a coffee shop or library). There’s a lot of nonsense floating around these days about how creativity is a fundamentally social act. Ignore this. — for many people, the creative thinking process is a solo act.
6. Work at night when your cortisol levels are lower.
Cortisol. Cortisol is a stress hormone, and it peaks in the morning and steadily dissipates throughout the day. For some of us, these peaks and falls are especially pronounced.
7. Strengthen your backbone, and therefore your confidence, in small steps. Get in the habit of asking yourself where you stand on various questions. When you have firm opinions or a strong sense right or wrong on a given question, savor the feeling.
8. If you need a role model of fearless idea generation and sharing, you really need look no further than Arianna Huffington and her Third Metric mission.
Tomi Engdahl says:
This pressure poses a problem for people who are trying to build something. It’s hard to create something truly valuable — it takes a lot of time. A lot of patience. Many mistakes are made along the way. There’s a fantastic interview with Jeff Bezos where he talks about it: “I think some of the things that we have undertaken I think could not be done in two to three years. And so, basically if we needed to see meaningful financial results in two to three years, some of the most meaningful things we’ve done we would never have even started.”
Source: http://blogs.hbr.org/2014/06/high-frequency-trading-and-finances-race-to-irrelevance/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Jeff Bezos on Leading for the Long-Term at Amazon
http://blogs.hbr.org/2013/01/jeff-bezos-on-leading-for-the/
JEFF BEZOS: Well, We like to build innovative things. We’ll look around the world, and we’ll be inspired by what we see. But we like to put our own unique twist on it and do something that’s not redundant. If there are 100 physical stores that are doing a great job, we don’t want to be the 101st. If we can find something that we think customers would like that would be differentiated, it would be super fun to do that.
ADI IGNATIUS: So would developing a phone also fall into that innovative category?
JEFF BEZOS: Yeah, absolutely. That’s the kind of thing where you would ask what is the idea? How would it be differentiated? Why wouldn’t it be me too?
ADI IGNATIUS: So disruption is obviously a rough business.
JEFF BEZOS: When things get complicated, we simplify by saying what’s best for the customer? And then we take it as an article of faith if we do that, it’ll work out the long term. So we can never prove that. In fact, sometimes we’ve done a price elasticity studies, and the answer is always we should raise prices.
ADI IGNATIUS: How do you institutionalize the ability to come up with these good, misunderstood ideas?
JEFF BEZOS: Well, I think it’s a couple of things. One is we have a lot of internal stories that we tell ourselves about persistence and patience, long term thinking, staying heads down, focused on the customer even while being criticized.
The second is selection of the people.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Now, there are some rockstar CEOs — who oftentimes happen to be founders, such as Bezos, Steve Jobs, Reid Hastings — who have the ability to resist the pressure that the markets put on them. But what about everyone else? Well, it’s becoming increasingly hard to resist that pressure. The financial markets put pressure on you to generate the type of returns they’re looking for: quarterly results. If you’re an executive and your job lives and dies on those results, then you begin to realize that that’s what you need to deliver. Projects that take longer than that to materialize — particularly those that result in an upfront dip in earnings due to investment — get deprioritized.
In effect, financial markets are pushing companies to run a marathon… by having them sprint every lap.
It makes no sense to let such finance-oriented, short-term pressures seep into the economy’s innovation engines.
Source: http://blogs.hbr.org/2014/06/high-frequency-trading-and-finances-race-to-irrelevance/
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Reverse Yelp: Restaurants Can Now Review Customers, Too
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-06-03/the-reverse-yelp-restaurants-can-now-review-customers-too
Your restaurant is watching you. Or if it isn’t yet, it probably will be soon. The Sydney-based restaurant reservation system Dimmi ResDiary, Australia’s version of OpenTable (OPEN), allows participating restaurants to track and rate customers’ dining “performance”—what they ordered, how much they tipped, whether they made any demanding requests (take note, dressing-on-the-side people), and anything else that might prepare waiters for their arrival.
Dimmi allows any of its 2,500 member restaurants to inform the others about you
This is, of course, in addition to the old fashioned Google (GOOG) search that some restaurant hosts already employ.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Innovation is the buzzword of the moment. At best it is misused and at worst it’s deliberately misleading. The very concept of innovation ought to imply betterment – a process of improving things. Instead, it has become a licence to create change for its own sake, with betterment being experienced only in the bank accounts of those doing the innovating.
Questioning the righteousness of innovators is heresy in these narrow-minded times but it pays to heed the bullshit meter. The next time someone starts bandying around the term “innovation” at your office, grab your mobbafer and call security to escort them from the premises. The last thing you need is someone cocking up your business because it sounds cool.
Source: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/04/11/innovation_creates_instability_blasphemer_kill_the_heretic/?page=2
Tomi Engdahl says:
First class students programming instruction begins in 2016 – Espoo code gets a taste of the coding club
Perkkaanpuisto gives a taste of the autumn of 2016. Then all Finnish schoolchildren learn programming – first grade.
Seven classes will start in 2017, eights and nines 2018 to 2019. A father and mother pöyristyy information. First grade! They may need to look back on your own computer teaching in 1970 – or 1980′s.
It was quite an occult science and Basic programming language.
Now blowing in different winds.
“Programming know-how in the 2000s citizen’s right and obligation,” says Linda Liukas. He has just completed with Juhani Mykkänen a teachers manual for programming. Its name is Koodi2016.
Programming input can upset some of the teachers because also they should know it themselves. A guide book to try to help in that.
“The book is a first aid kit and programming cheat sheet,”
Liukas and Mykkänen met once at the seminar. They wonder how to Finland programming knowledge visible. To order for the Board of Education to consider the place of programming in teaching. Elsewhere in the world, such as Estonia and the United Kingdom, had already woken up.
Education Minister Kiuru took the programming of the draft curriculum. A few countries will be Finland, alongside that. Singapore and South Korea will start soon learned programming.
September programming input is everywhere evident. Almost all of the world is being digitalized at a rapid pace. Also, services and everyday transactions are increasingly based computers. Although the program does not end up in the country – most do not, of course, end up – it’s good to know how everything revolves.
First of all, the programming will be all in the context of mathematics education. But it is spreading to other classes.
“All sectors to change due to software”
Liukas founded Rails Girls slick set up shop, which is based on a voluntary basis. It aims to ensure that girls start programming.
Since then, Slick began in New York City teach programming online Codecademyssä 2012. Now the service has already 24 million users. At the same time Rails Girls is spreading in Asia.
Computer user nowadays does not necessarily need for information about the programs or programming – it makes them passive. That’s why now is the way to go back to the starting point. At the same time programmers will be expanded gradually to all age groups.
In Finland, the project will drive almost all the gamblers Rovio Siilasmaa, and Sitra supercel. Two parties share the view that the 2000s in the information society is much digicam, ones and zeros.
If someone does not make the world of digital programs in Finland, they needs to be bought from abroad.
Fundamentally programming it is not difficult, but becoming very good in it takes lots of work.
Source: http://www.hs.fi/tiede/Ekaluokkalaisten+ohjelmointiopetus+alkaa+vuonna+2016++Espoon+koodikerhosta+saa+esimakua/a1401942756096?jako=14282650fa285e83427de9fe375c980b&ref=fb-share&sivu=2
Tomi Engdahl says:
Skill You Wish Everyone Would Learn?
Learn the Value of Knowing Where and How to Find the Information [You] need
I wish that everyone would learn the value of knowing where and how to find the information they need to accomplish a goal. Schools typically force you to memorize facts and information that is often worthless. I would like for people to learn instead how to be adaptive in their approach to problems, and understand that there is always more than one answer.. and there is a huge resource out there that will enable you to make educated decisions and reach grander goals. We live in a great time with that…and in that way, the internet is underutilized…
Source: http://hackaday.com/2014/06/05/thp-hacker-bio-flc/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Be the next tech hotshot – by staying the hell away from regulators
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/05/15/worstall_wednesday/
I’m often left rather scratching my head as I read the latest screeds on the new new economics. You know, all this lovely stuff about how late industrial capitalism can, and should, change into a more caring, localised system.
What people come up with seems to be very much like old economics, although the authors of papers on the subject would be horrified if you were to point this out to them.
We do indeed know that it is small and upstart businesses that produce the majority of employment in the economy. We also know that it is those same two that produce all of the net increase in jobs in the economy. Large companies tend to reduce their headcount over time: jobs growth comes from the new and small ones growing up in the interstices. All of this is well known and entirely standard economics.
Tech is more like that Smithian, or ultra micro economic, economy than much of the rest of the business landscape.
There are the basic rules – the rule of law, property ownership, a tolerable administration of justice, and so on – and really not much more to prevent people getting on with whatever it is that they want to do
Consider Uber, Lyft, Le Cab and the rest: their problems come not from the tech part of what they’re doing, but from the regulatory interface
Perhaps all of these restrictions are necessary, perhaps they’re not: that’s more of a political question than an economic one.
In other words, leave people to get on with things and they’ll tend to get them sorted out.
Tomi Engdahl says:
“Arrogant” Apple Managers Are The Reason Apple Needs Beats
http://www.buzzfeed.com/azafar/arrogant-apple-managers-are-the-reason-apple-needs-beats
Apple employees shed some light on the willfully ignorant execs that paved the way to Apple’s acquisition of Beats Music.
Apple’s high-profile acquisition of Beats Music has brought the tech giant’s future in the streaming and recommendation music business into sharp focus.
Past and current employees in the company with direct knowledge of iTunes and Apple’s services Ping and iTunes Radio told BuzzFeed that Apple engineers involved with those products often preferred to use Spotify and Pandora.
When it launched in 2003, iTunes revolutionized the digital music industry by offering songs and albums à la carte. But it’s been largely criticized in recent years as it has struggled to compete with newer streaming services.
Ping, sources agreed, was designed to prompt users to click and buy songs, rather than to facilitate the sharing of playlists or discussion
“But the biggest reason why Ping failed was because Apple was not interested in making a network — they were interested in making a purchase pusher.”
Apple employees confirmed that management actively ignored iTunes’ streaming competitors,
Apple has rarely looked outside for help, and when news of the Beats purchase broke, many wondered why they’d do so now.
“They’re having trouble capturing the younger generation,” the former employee said. “The Apple coolness is kind of fading away.”
BeTCH says:
Howdy! Someone in my Facebook group shared this site
with us so I came to give it a look. I’m definitely enjoying the information. I’m book-marking and will be tweeting this to my followers!
Wonderful blog and wonderful design and style.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Dear Clients, Please Stop: Ten Ways Founders Sabotage Themselves
http://techcrunch.com/2014/06/07/dear-clients-please-stop-ten-ways-founders-sabotage-themselves/
1. Premature Scaling Is The Root Of All Evil
Dear clients: Focus on your product, not your stress tests.
2. Technical Debt Will Kill You
a stitch in time really does save nine.
3. Google Doesn’t Care
you are not industry players, at least not yet.
4. You Are Not A Platform
Platform. It’s a magical word. Everyone wants their app/site/service to one day be a platform. Unfortunately, this can lead people to believe that this is what they are in fact building.
5. Stop Trying To Make Viral Happen
yes, you do want to make it easy for users to share. But if your app doesn’t go viral, it’s almost certainly because it isn’t useful/good/fun enough
6. Have A Map Of The Valley Of Despair
know your market, and have a marketing plan other than “launch and go viral”
7. Stop Trying To Be The NSA
you won’t get valuable insights from just collecting the maximal amount of analytical data and then randomly browsing through it in an ad-hoc manner
8. Stop Managing By Crisis
Project management is a fine art, and a lot of clients are new to it.
save the big red button for real crises.
9. Let It Go (For Enterprise Clients)
read http://www.halfarsedagilemanifesto.org/
10. How To Report A Bug
use the form “when I did X, I expected Y, but got Z”
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Tech Sector Needs More Women; Here’s How You Can Make It Happen
http://www.forbes.com/sites/bruceupbin/2014/05/12/the-tech-sector-needs-more-women-heres-how-you-can-make-it-happen/
Tomi Engdahl says:
The essentials of a Business Plan – Part 2/3
The key elements of a business plan are;
The Problem – you are addressing,
The Solution – your unique value proposition,
The Model – your revenue streams,
The secret sauce – the most important thing about your solution that will create customer value,
Marketing & Sales – Who is your customer and how will you reach them,
The Competition – Never say there is no competition, just look harder and wider,
The Team – show how you complement each other,
Projections – Stress more on the costs and expenses side of things than revenue (for fresh startups),
The Status & Conclusion – customize to your audience.
See more at: http://www.entroids.com/blog/the-essentials-of-a-business-plan-part-23/?UA-50704509-1#sthash.QLobzCWR.dpuf
Tomi Engdahl says:
Fujitsu Labs: Is Trend Open-Source or Cloud-Labor?
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1322629&
“Monozukuri innovation” in a collaborative economy and hyper-connected world loomed large at the Fujitsu Laboratories of America Technology Symposium at the Computer History Museum
“The Changing Landscape of Innovation: Open, Shared, and Democratized,”
In other words, monozukuri, a Japanese manufacturing term that translates vaguely into craftsmanship and integrated manufacturing processes, gets an open-source and big-data update.
Fujiwara’s account of Fujitsu’s crowdsourcing as an internal innovation management tool within parameters of lifetime employment was in striking contrast with the plug-and-play sourcing models presented by fellow panelists Matt Cooper of oDesk and John Hoskins of Amazon Mechanical Turk. Crowdsourcing is synonymous with cloud-labor, a consumption model described by Cooper and Hoskins as allowing businesses to keep freelance and contract labor on standby via online technology.
By and large, panelists described open-source software as the engine behind the paradigm shift from traditional business models. Law professor Deven Desai of Thomas Jefferson School of Law in San Diego pointed out innovation over the last 30 years has been in digitization of things, and now the most interesting aspect is that of networking. “The new big players are the ones who will be providing infrastructure,” said Desai.
Desai’s fellow panelist, Doug Cutting of Cloudera, said it’s hard to find an industry that’s not adopting digital technology. There are two concurrent revolutions, according to Cutting, the open-source revolution and the data revolution. Both are becoming mandates, using open-source software and harnessing the data.
The future of manufacturing is more somber, with the road from prototype to production harder than most people think
Tomi Engdahl says:
Strategy Boutique ultimate ‘tech’-gasm: 3D printer drone GoPro vid stream QR code
They forgot ‘as a Service’ though. Maybe Cloud’s over?
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/06/09/game_changing_flying_3d_printer/
Make no mistake: the game has changed and if you’re not on board the ultra engagement bus, then you’ll be yesterday before it’s tomorrow.
That’s the astounding message from a video designed to attract world-weary media types to the Creative Fuel Conference, set to redefine paradigms in Sydney on 28 July.
Tomi Engdahl says:
A Conversation With Linus Torvalds, Who Built The World’s Most Robust Operating System And Gave It Away For Free
Here are the main takeaways from our conversation, and the full interview appears below that.
He’s quite happy with how far Linux has come. “I think programming is fun, and the community around the kernel is great, but a project has to be relevant too.”
The patent system is fundamentally flawed. “There are tons of honest people who are trying their best to do what they really think is right, and not all patents are crap. But the systemic incentives are just out of whack, both on the patent application/granting side and on the litigation side.”
No regrets over making Linux open source. “Me trying to make a business around Linux would have been a total disaster. It would have made it impossible to get the kind of community around Linux that we have, and that was so instrumental in making Linux what it is today.”
Torvalds family gear is largely Linux-based. “We’re a Linux household, surprise surprise. The computers I have may have originally come with Windows or OS X pre-installed, but for some odd reason they all run Linux in the end.”
Computer programming is not for everyone. “I think it’s reasonably specialized, and nobody really expects most people to have to do it. It’s not like knowing how to read and write and do basic math.”
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/linus-torvalds-qa-2014-6#ixzz34E8bXh19
Tomi Engdahl says:
‘Failure is not an option… Never give up.’ Not in Silicon Valley, mate
Serial failures don’t make it big, no matter what rumours say
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/05/31/failure_is_not_an_option_nonsense_reality_of_silicon_valley/
Consider these two things: “Failure is not an option,” the famous words of the Apollo 13 mission controller in Houston
Contrast this approach with that of Silicon Valley, where failure is tolerated – nay, recommended – as part of a learning process in business. Throw mud at a wall, Valley lore says, and if it doesn’t stick, taking you down with it, change the design, the technology, the process, or whatever, and try again.
USN SEAL lore says don’t give up, don’t change, just stick with it, whatever it takes, and then give it some more.
Silicon Valley lore says recognise failure fast, withdraw, regroup, redesign, re-apply and toss the remixed mud at the wall again… and then change it once more and toss it again when it fails. Rinse, redesign and repeat.
Only we all know it’s not really like that, and definitely not when VCs are looking to gamble on a startup. They don’t invest in startups run by serial failures.
No, they want a track record of success in everything and so they look for people who have overcome failure, or who have succeeded in their roles despite their businesses crashing and burning.
Both Navy SEAL lore and Silicon Valley lore are unrealistic.
People who don’t have the rounded education provided by early failures end up with an inflated opinion of themselves and possibly unreal expectations of others.
Failure is not an option? Oh yes it is – but be sure to pick out your successes, stick them on your CV, present them as your track record, and try again.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Social media: How life online makes us smarter
http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20140608-how-social-media-makes-us-smarter
How is living online changing us? Author Clive Thompson argues that we shouldn’t fear the likes of Facebook and Twitter because it’s helping us to achieve things we couldn’t have done before.
What are you thinking right now? In the past, thought tended to be more of a private affair. Perhaps that’s part of the reason why some believe that creativity only comes from sitting alone, staring into space.
Yet, as author and journalist Clive Thompson points out, big ideas only come into the world when we share our thinking with others.
People were using them in ways that helped them to think in different ways, to learn new things and to solve problems they couldn’t have solved before.
Many of the successful tools in the last 10 years are ones that have enhanced pre-existing modes of thought. The reason why people love seeing what other people are doing or thinking on the likes of Facebook or Twitter is that we love doing it offline – we’re social animals.
And that is why, he says, the internet in the 21st Century has become a humongous idea-making machine. Never before have we been able to disseminate our ideas with so many people, all over the world.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Computex 2014: Building a Better Mouse
http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=36&doc_id=1322675&
Despite being the largest tradeshow in Asia, the 2014 Computex appeared to be more about building better solutions around the existing technology, than new innovations, a trend that has been reflected by many of the other major industry events. The problem appears to be a slowing in the innovation of existing platforms and a lull before any real innovation comes from the IoT generation. As with the other major industry events, there were plenty of new devices, but nothing remarkably new.
Tomi Engdahl says:
“As an open-source guru Tim O’Reilly has said that the fundamental question of articles on the Internet is, it will change our lives better or worse”, Marko Ahtisaari said today in his speech Upgraded Life Festival in Otaniemi. The former head of design at Nokia, Ahtisaari currently working in the United States, the MIT Media Lab at the University.
The first he mentioned the comprehensiveness of the measurements.
“Second, changing behavior is extremely difficult for humans. American leadership trainer Marshall Goldsmith has come up with an easy way to take advantage of peer support,” Ahtisaari said.
“Agree with that friend, that you call each other every day and just ask briefly whether they both did today what is going to way of life in this. Example:” Did you do it half-hour loop today? “The performance is not necessary to comment, but people are motivated by effectively when he has to tell her friend progress. ”
Ahtisaari also said that it is essential to the ease of use of technology in everyday life.
“The next level of life-enhancing system until we get to, for example, self-measurement applications must be such that they do not take up our attention around the issues.”
Source: http://www.tietoviikko.fi/uutisia/marko+ahtisaari+muuttaako+esineiden+internet+elamamme+paremmaksi+vai+pahemmaksi/a992982
Tomi Engdahl says:
Security DVR + iNet + X10 = Easy Home Automation (Video)
http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/14/06/10/208205/security-dvr–inet–x10–easy-home-automation-video
I have to hand it to this individual for definitely thinking outside-the-box and hooking up three types of systems using interfaces you’d not expect to be used in this manner, and coming up with something which is (at least in his case) useful.
This was very gratifying to watch.
he’s using an on-screen display generator to produce menus and output that you feed into a video input channel on the DVR, and it intercepts the DVR’s RS-485 bus (used for pan-tilt-zoom control of cameras) to receive command input from the user.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Everyone can and should learn to code? RUBBISH, says Torvalds
Some people won’t ‘have the aptitude,’ Linux creator claims
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/06/09/torvalds_no_mandatory_coding_education/
Outspoken Linux creator Linus Torvalds has taken issue with the oft-repeated assertion that in today’s world everybody should learn computer programming, saying he just doesn’t believe in it.
“I actually don’t believe that everybody should necessarily try to learn to code,” Torvalds said. “I think it’s reasonably specialized, and nobody really expects most people to have to do it. It’s not like knowing how to read and write and do basic math.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Quite innovative idea:
Wow, this pen can write in any color on Earth
http://www.cnet.com/news/the-pen-that-can-write-in-any-color-on-earth/
Like the color of that flower? Your friend’s tie? With this new Scribble pen making a run on Kickstarter, all the hues of the world could be yours.
Take that, Crayola! The ink version of the Scribble will draw in 100,000 different colors.
It’s called the Scribble and it’s a new kind of pen that can sample any color you point it at and then let you draw in that color. There are two types of Scribbles planned: one with an ink cartridge that will let you draw on paper with your captured color, and a stylus version that will let you splash color around on your mobile device’s screen when the Scribble+ app is installed.
The version that draws on paper has a built-in ink cartridge that will squirt the right mix of colors into a mixing chamber before it passes on to the page.
I’d think artists would love a gizmo like this. How cool would it be to paint a flower with a pen that takes the exact colors from nature and puts them down on a piece of paper?
Tomi Engdahl says:
ICT2014 Innovation Tournament
http://www.ict-innovaatioturnaus.fi/en/
Finnish Federation for Communications and Teleinformatics, FiCom is a co-operation organisation for the Finnish ICT (information and communications technology) industry, that looks after its interests. The ICT industry needs a continuous flow of innovations in order to create new success stories. At FiCom We believe, that the best solutions are developed with open collaboration. ICT2014 Innovation Tournament is an open innovation competition to all ICT users and developers. By organizing the ICT2014 Innovation Tournament, FiCom offers a novel, exciting and fun opportunity to create something totally new. Something, that makes the future of ICT industry flourishing, prosperous and surprising.
Tomi Engdahl says:
How to improve the quality of outsourcing services
Despite the trend of outsourcing satisfaction with the quality of outsourced services is not at the desired level.
What measures of outsourcing services to improve the quality level of costs without compromising? Will be described in a few key ways from three perspectives: 1) Customer 2) Supplier, 3) Customer and Supplier together. The underlying basis for right and for the right reasons of outsourcing.
Customer: Service / services must set clear goals and service objectives in addition to the development of services. Typically, customers are dissatisfied, in particular, that the services do not develop. Customers will not, therefore, feel that the promise of innovation and proactivity is realized. Customers, it is important to understand that your service delivery is fundamentally different from the management of outsourced services. A high-quality experienced by the customer’s operation is needed to achieve the customer’s active contribution in steering the supplier.
The exact description of the contents of the order is important, when the delivery service is purchased from producer. Service providers produce what is ordered.
Development of services and the development of services management is essential to agree in the contract negotiations.
Customers appreciate the clear, highly refined proposals which the supplier has given substance to the benefits of and prepared for at least a preliminary plan for implementing the proposal.
Why data and potential is not being exploited?
In service business, even small actions can have a lot of significance. Good service culture to keep customers happy.
Customers and suppliers, it is important to create a unified, Cross-organizational working culture. Uniform work culture of both organizations requires effort and the right attitude.
The service manual is emphasized, particularly in large and complex deliveries.
ICT outsourcing services continues to be strong. Benefits realization plan is to invest in our new roles clarification and adoption, vendors, active control, process capability in the development and working together for the common cultural creation.
Suppliers should pay special attention to innovation and proactivity as well as the comprehensiveness of services and service culture.
Source: http://www.tietoviikko.fi/cio/artikkelit/parhaat_kaytannot/kuinka+parantaa+ulkoistuspalveluiden+laatua/a993173
Tomi Engdahl says:
Why You Hate Work
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/01/opinion/sunday/why-you-hate-work.html?_r=1
THE way we’re working isn’t working. Even if you’re lucky enough to have a job, you’re probably not very excited to get to the office in the morning, you don’t feel much appreciated while you’re there, you find it difficult to get your most important work accomplished, amid all the distractions, and you don’t believe that what you’re doing makes much of a difference anyway. By the time you get home, you’re pretty much running on empty, and yet still answering emails until you fall asleep.
Increasingly, this experience is common not just to middle managers, but also to top executives.
“I just felt that no matter what I was doing, I was always getting pulled somewhere else,” he explained. “It seemed like I was always cheating someone — my company, my family, myself. I couldn’t truly focus on anything.”
Mr. Kissam is not alone.
More broadly, just 30 percent of employees in America feel engaged at work, according to a 2013 report by Gallup. Around the world, across 142 countries, the proportion of employees who feel engaged at work is just 13 percent.
Demand for our time is increasingly exceeding our capacity — draining us of the energy we need to bring our skill and talent fully to life.
Employees are vastly more satisfied and productive, it turns out, when four of their core needs are met: physical, through opportunities to regularly renew and recharge at work; emotional, by feeling valued and appreciated for their contributions; mental, when they have the opportunity to focus in an absorbed way on their most important tasks and define when and where they get their work done; and spiritual, by doing more of what they do best and enjoy most, and by feeling connected to a higher purpose at work.
THE more effectively leaders and organizations support employees in meeting these core needs, the more likely the employees are to experience engagement, loyalty, job satisfaction and positive energy at work, and the lower their perceived levels of stress.
Engagement — variously defined as “involvement, commitment, passion, enthusiasm, focused effort and energy” — has now been widely correlated with higher corporate performance. I
Renewal: Employees who take a break every 90 minutes report a 30 percent higher level of focus than those who take no breaks or just one during the day.
Value: Feeling cared for by one’s supervisor has a more significant impact on people’s sense of trust and safety than any other behavior by a leader.
Focus: Only 20 percent of respondents said they were able to focus on one task at a time at work, but those who could were 50 percent more engaged.
Purpose: Employees who derive meaning and significance from their work were more than three times as likely to stay with their organizations
We often ask senior leaders a simple question: If your employees feel more energized, valued, focused and purposeful, do they perform better? Not surprisingly, the answer is almost always “Yes.” Next we ask, “So how much do you invest in meeting those needs?” An uncomfortable silence typically ensues.
A truly human-centered organization puts its people first — even above customers — because it recognizes that they are the key to creating long-term value
Tomi Engdahl says:
Creating Gender-Neutral Engineering Prose: Does Anyone Actually Care?
http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=216&doc_id=1321553&
Generally speaking — in the wider scheme of things — modern English is not considered to have grammatical gender. However, Old English did employ the concept of gender, and a few remnants of that system still exist, such as the distinct third-person pronouns he, she, and it.
The ideal solution would be to have a gender-neutral pronoun.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Neuroscientists Join the Open-Source Hardware Movement
Two MIT grad students offer up DIY brain-recording gear
http://spectrum.ieee.org/biomedical/devices/neuroscientists-join-the-opensource-hardware-movement
The recording systems cost upward of US $60,000 each, and they wanted at least four. So they decided to solve their dilemma by building their own gear on the cheap.
Siegle and Voigts weren’t knowledgeable about either circuit design or coding, but they learned as they went along. By July 2013, they were ready to manufacture 50 of their recording systems, which they gave to collaborators for beta testing. This spring they manufactured 100 improved units, which are now arriving in neuroscience labs around the world. They estimate that each system costs about $3,000 to produce.
Neuroscience has a history of hackers, Siegle says, with researchers cobbling together their own gear or customizing commercial systems to meet their particular needs. But those new tools rarely leave the labs they are built in.
Commercial systems typically have individual ICs perform each of those four functions, but Siegle and Voigts’s system uses a single microchip for the four steps. The chip was recently developed by Intan Technologies, based in Los Angeles. “Once we realized these chips were available, it seemed kind of silly to keep buying the big systems,” Siegle says.
The president and cofounder of Intan, Reid Harrison, says that shrinking and consolidating the gear wasn’t that complicated—it mostly required initiative. “It’s such a niche market that no one else had tried to miniaturize the technology,”
Tomi Engdahl says:
So, what exactly defines a ‘boffin’? Speak your brains…
Engineer? Computer scientist? Biologist? You tell us
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/06/12/boffin_definition/
History records that “boffin” was first used for the kind of people who developed radar, brewed up bouncing bombs or sat smoking their pipes while dreaming up mighter codebreaking machines.
Since then, the term has at times been deployed in a derogatory sense, but has of late been restored to its full glory as an affectionate name for an increasingly wider range of professions.
So, where’s the limit?
Tomi Engdahl says:
European youth believe they lack skills for digital economy
http://www.computerweekly.com/news/2240219500/European-youth-not-skilled-for-digital-economy
Almost three quarters (70%) of young people believe they will have to acquire digital skills after leaving education because current education systems do not prepare them for work.
A total of 63% of young people surveyed by think tank ThinkYoung and Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) said they are not prepared for the digital economy.
The digital revolution will affect and benefit every European – but it is the younger people who will most shape it, and be shaped by it.”
Over 90 million Europeans in Generation Y will enable the next generation of digital enterprises.
“Young people across Europe share a positive outlook towards technology and the opportunities it will create for them in the future workplace.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Inside Shenzhen: China’s Silicon Valley
http://www.theguardian.com/cities/2014/jun/13/inside-shenzen-china-silicon-valley-tech-nirvana-pearl-river
Just 30 years ago this Pearl River Delta megacity was a mere fishing village. Now home to up to 15 million people it hopes to become a tech nirvana for the world’s hardware startups
“Everything you need is here,” says Eric Pan, founder of Seeed Studio, looking out of the dusty windows of his mid-rise office/factory/warehouse. Within walking distance of his building are circuit-board manufacturers, injection-moulding companies, packagers and shippers. He is three hours from factories making every imaginable electronic component, and three days by FedEx from 90% of the world’s population.
Twenty years ago, digital tools made it possible to build internet businesses with minimal costs; a company like Facebook could launch from a dorm room without any major investment. Hardware was different, though, the domain of corporate labs and R&D budgets. Now that’s changed, and making a proof-of-concept for an internet-connected doorbell or GPS-enabled tennis racket is a weekend project for the right kind of geek.
Hi-tech entrepreneurs are having an idea, building a prototype, making a convincing promotional video, then posting it to the world on Kickstarter. If the idea catches fire, the founders may find themselves with a few hundred thousand dollars in the bank, a prototype, and a host of excited customers to satisfy. Which is when – often – they make the pilgrimage to Shenzhen to meet manufacturers and suppliers face to face. They’ll rent an apartment, learn a few words of Chinese, and likely apply for a tech incubator scheme such as HAXLR8R.