Revelnnovation

Excerpted:  ...in a world where the miraculous very quickly becomes common-place (light bulbs, refrigeration and penicillin), how can a company, especially one as big as Google, maintain a spirit of innovation year after year?

Nurturing a culture that allows for innovation is the key. As we’ve grown to over 26,000 employees in more than 60 offices, we’ve worked hard to maintain the unique spirit that characterized Google way back when I joined as employee #16.

[Google is facing] the classic innovator’s dilemma: should we invest in brand new products, or should we improve existing ones? We believe in doing both, and learning while we do it.

1.  Have_a_mission_that_matters

Work can be more than a job when it stands for something you care about.

...In times of crisis, they have helped by organizing life-saving information and making it readily available. The dedicated Googlers who launched our Person Finder tool (to learn more see Missions that Matter) within two hours of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan this March are a wonderful recent example of that commitment.

2.  Think_big_but_start_small

No matter how ambitious the plan, you have to roll up your sleeves and start somewhere. Google Books, which has brought the content of millions of books online, was an idea that our founder, Larry Page, had for a long time. People thought it was too crazy even to try...  He began scanning pages, timed how long it took with a metronome, ran the numbers and realized it would be possible to bring the world’s books online. Today, our Book Search index contains over 10 million books.

3.  Strive_for_continual_ innovation, not_instant_perfection

The best part of working on the web? We get do-overs. Lots of them.

Iterating has served us well. We weren’t first to Search, but we were able to make progress in the market by working quickly, learning faster and taking our next steps based on data.

4. Look_for_ideas_everywhere

As the leader of our Ads products, I want to hear ideas from everyone – and that includes our partners, advertisers and all of the people on my team. I also want to be a part of the conversations Googlers are having in the hallways.

....successful AdWords features like Automated Rules, are great examples of projects that started out in our ‘microkitchens.’ This is why we make sure Google is stocked with plenty of snacks at all times.

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via flickr.com

Digital New York Times PAID subscription:  OK - I'm NOW, just now, ready for this.

• iPad √ check. 
•  iPhone √ check. (The iPhone is my 3G workhorse - I can't live without it work-wise...)

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You get what you pay for...or someone pays for...

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The light tablets are all ready for PRIME TIME, sez I.  Whether it is an iPad, a Samsung big pocket size or Motorola Xoom, whatever, this is truely the year of tablet content delivery.  Baby boomers are doing it.  Your grandmother might even be doing it. 

Ever since I saw tablet sized readers via some part of the Star Trek franchise, I was hoping. I think I can finally let go of my HandSpring Visor component system jones, as the tablets are really doing it for me.

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Photos:  by Deb, Mohan and his Samsung pocket tablet this January, 2011.

Shoop, shoop, shoop, finger touch:
1) Light, agile tablet: It's less wieldy than flipping through all that newsprint on Sundays.

2) Cleaner too! No newsprint inky fingers. Pecan rolls sticky fingers with breakfast are another story.

Reasonable price - high end subsidies:
3) The Times is a fairly expensive paper for good reason, to pay for the level of in-depth trained journalism.  (Fox News arguements aside.) This English major never ceases to enjoy the wonderful quality of writing in this paper.

4) Daily paper subscriptions, on one count, are .99 a month rising to 8.99 a week for digital for iPad and smartphone. There are other deals out there.

5) Subsidies: Depending on who you are and what you do, Lincoln and other companies courting you might subsidize your subscription for one year. Sounds like a smart move to me.  You get what you pay for, or what someone out there pays for.

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 Your grandmother might even be doing it. 

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Rich content:
6) Movies, slide shows, audio narration, citizen journalism are all value adds in the digital platforms. I love hearing about fashion on the street from the cool guy with a New York Accent:

7) Personalization & customization: I agree it is cool, not creepy. I'm more ready for it now in 2011. In 2010, it was still a bit creepy.

Ann Arbor News R.I.P. - AnnArbor.com is still finding its way.  I just discontinued my New York Times Sunday only paper version this past January.  (The soy ink based papers get recycled in my garden.)  The guy on the phone was really good about it and let me know what was in the works for the iPad.

Via iPad, I look forward to my daily read every day, and we have, in this household, one subsidized subscription and one that I've already paid for.  For quality journalism, I'm glad to do it.   I want it.  It backs up my twitter, Facebook, citizen journalism mania and restores balance to the force.  

--Deb

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Benevolent hacking is the duct tape of the work world.  - the Hacking Work Manifesto

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There is a reason I generally like to hang around techie types, and am married to a particular brand of one.  For some, there's a lovely, dry sense of humor, a particular type of irreverence and "fight the system" and "fight working for the man" that enriches and adds proper balance to my anti-corporate (I'm not the Borg*) side. Yet, I do and will continue to choose  to work with and for corporations.  They are filled with lovely human beings that, like all of us I hope, desire to feel fully human and not herded into mechanistic silos and tunnels in order to make their numbers and pay the rent.  They have families, children, dreams.   Hackers provide great insights into this aspect of productivity when the bureaucracy turns sour, does not serve the masses, and just plain gets in the way.

God bless 'em (many agnostics and atheists and alternatives to my mainline religious views, out there, I'm glad to say.)  I'm glad they are out there to make work do-able when the normal ways of doing work just DON'T work.

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 That all said, I'm actually one of them. 

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Also:  Some of them make enough money that their salaries rival that of bank V.Ps.  There's a certain delight in that.  Especially when seeing their videos and reading their blogs, where they say anything they want.

That all said, I'm actually one of them.  I'm a shallow nerd type.  I love technology & gadgets.  I can do basic html and embed stuff.  I can create social media empire structures.  I can figure stuff out, with a little help from my deep techie friends including smartie pants, socially adept types.  I can see where technology accelerates human capabilities and builds relationships.  More power to we all in building our techie side, with every smart phone and iPad we buy.

--Deb

PS:  The Borg are race of 1/2 robot - 1/2 human hive-oriented creatures from the iconic show, Star Trek.   The Borg are also a symbol in popular culture for any type of juggernaut against which "resistance is futile".  I am a Trekker from way back.  Seen all the movies.  Have opinions of the spin offs.  Love sci fi.  Even love Babylon 5 but not BattleStar Galactica.  Convinced I belong to the club?

Great tech trend visuals to capture David Pogue's presentation! Check out the full post regarding the overview of technology trends that will be affecting our lives. Pop Culture note: Ironman 2 is featuring many of the these trends. It's a geeky sci-fi, comic book guilty pleasure, spiced with AC/DC. See the world with data overlaid, that's a trend that is building in movie culture and technology that is already available today. -- Deb

Deb: Earlier I blogged about Sixth Sense. (Similar to the technology in the Minority Report.) This is technology is here now: Google Googles for Android...

I have an iPhone... So we'll see what apps go with that...

Excerpted:  

Posterous (considered by some to be Tumblr’s biggest rival) is finally allowing users to create pages to accompany their blogs.   Unlike Tumblr however, Posterous is enabling fans of the service to add a few extra features to pages that may appeal to keep-it-simple bloggers, not to mention spammers as well.

We decided to use the same great editor that you are already using for posts. This means you can edit rich text, upload any media, and add and edit photo galleries. All of the cool features that we’ve created for posts—like link auto-expansion and syntax highlighting—come along for the ride with pages. [...]

We allow you to create a page that redirects to a static URL. You may want to do this if you want to add a link to one of your social networks, or to a page tTo [sic] do this, simply click on the “Page Options” tab, and add a URL where it says “Redirect to:”. When your visitors click on a link to a redirect page, they will be redirected to the URL you specified. (Official Posterous Blog)

Although it’s great to see Posterous finally add pages (which is considered a standard feature in Blogger, WordPress and Tumblr), the page redirect feature is potentially dangerous as one could redirect a curious user towards a site filled with malware.

Perhaps Posterous could consider giving users about to be redirected a link to the actual site (similar to how Facebook warns users who are about to be redirected towards another site).

via blogherald.com   by Darnell Clayton

Excerpted:

Innovation bringing about the next Michigan

Audio of the "Destination: Innovation" event in Troy, Michigan

• Opening
• Innovation defined
• Innovation defined part 2
• Innovation in action

Related podcasts:

• Soji Adelaja, Director of Michigan State University's Land Policy Institute talks with WWJ's Ron Dewey on the change in culture necessary in order to fix Michigan's economy.
• Jeff DeGraff, Clinical Professor of Business Administration, Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan, talks about how Michigan lost its edge. WWJ's Ron Dewey with the interview.
• Judy Johncox, Associate Vice President for Technology Commericialization at Wayne State University talks about what is at the heart of an entrepenuer. WWJ’s Ron Dewey with the interview.
• URC Executive Director Jeff Mason on Destination Innovation
• Terry Cross, executive in residence-entrepreneurship at Wayne State University discusses his program and innovation with WWJ's Beth Fisher.

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• Innovation requires a lot of variation - a lot of diversity, lot of touch points, a lot of pushing and shoving in a positive and constructive way…
• The more things are aligned, the more they create efficiencies and standards.
• But they eliminate variation, that is what fuels innovation...

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Photos from the event »

TROY, Mich. (WWJ) -- What will it take for Michigan to get its economic groove back? At WWJ's "Destination: Innovation" Business Breakfast in Troy, business and University Research Corridor leaders agreed that entrepreneurialism is the key.

During Thursday's event, WWJ had a chance to hear from some of the top minds in Michigan about how we can bring new business, new technology and jobs to our state.

Judy Johncox helps turn ideas into action at Wayne State University's TechTown. She said the key to being an entrepreneur is to surround yourself with other idea people.

...Jeff Mason is Executive Director of Michigan’s University Research Corridor, which is a collaboration between the state's three largest universities. "We've lost some of that 'mojo', if you will, in terms of innovation and entrepreneurship," Mason said.

"[We had] a hundred years of tinkerers and inventors and builders, and 'can do', and a sense of destiny -- I think that one of the things that happend in the 80's, in the downturn, is things got very conservative here," DeGraff said.

DeGraff says he sees these can-do people coming out of his classrooms. The roblem is, they take their amazing ideas out of Michigan. And DeGraff says that has to change.

...Rich Sheridan, CEO of Menlo Innovations...says...Michigan needs to "move away from an economy of entitlement and move toward an economy of entrepreneurship." Sheridan says, in his business, he loves to see creative conflict arise in the conference room, which, he says, fuels innovative ideas.

Experts to discuss how innovation can jump start Michigan's economy

via flickr.com

Excerpted:  If you've always wanted to set up a blog, but aren't particularly web savvy or don't want to invest a lot of time in blogging, you may want to consider using Posterous.

Posterous (pronounced "PO-ster-us") makes it ridiculously easy to set up a blog and share your thoughts, photos, videos and favorite links with others on the web via email.

Deb will share her story, lessons learned, and tips & strategies for staying on top of social media development and the decision questions that will help you make wiser choices for how you budget your marketing time and money. Deb's presentation will include looking at the niche of marketing for independents, consultants, and small to medium sized business, which may be overlooked in much of the social media research geared to large business.

To sign up for attending this lunchtime presentation this Wednesday, January 20th, 2010, go to the Facebook LA2M (Lunch, Ann Arbor Marketing) events page either here on the Reveln Consulting events page here or on the Facebook LA2M event site here.

She'll also share her contacts with those in the business who are discovering new trends regularly and links to tutorials and helpful Posterous blogger examples.

Deb Nystrom is an organization development consultant and leadership coach based in Ann Arbor, Michigan (United States) with 20+ years of experience serving business, higher education (University of Michigan+), and non-profits. Reveln Consulting provides organizational development and leadership coaching and is all about helping you access the strengths, innovation, and yearnings of your leadership team and organization to fully achieve your mission and vision.

Learn more about Deb by following these links:
* http://debnystrom.posterous.com/
* http://www.linkedin.com/in/dnrevel
* http://twitter.com/RevelnConsults

Sign up today on the Facebook events RC page  here or  LA2M here.  The event is offered at no charge.  Donations are accepted to help cover LA2M costs.  See you there!

Remember the Minority Report? Here's the technology - cameras and projectors become personal.  And I thought just putting away my wristwatch (and still needing it) was a big deal. 

The issue about practicality would be what and how to use it in bright light.

Facinating stuff, especially if it helps me not overbuy paper towels and ketchup.  

Excerpted:

 

The necessity of human ingenuity is undisputed. A recent IBM poll of 1,500 CEOs identified creativity as the No. 1 “leadership competency” of the future. Yet it’s not just about sustaining our nation’s economic growth.

 

All around us are matters of national and international importance that are crying out for creative solutions, from saving the Gulf of Mexico to bringing peace to Afghanistan to delivering health care.

 

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In effect, it’s left to the luck of the draw who becomes creative: there’s no concerted effort to nurture the creativity of all children.

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Such solutions emerge from a healthy marketplace of ideas, sustained by a populace constantly contributing original ideas and receptive to the ideas of others.

 

via flickr.com

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 Around the world, though, other countries are making creativity development a national priority.

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It’s too early to determine conclusively why U.S. creativity scores are declining. One likely culprit is the number of hours kids now spend in front of the TV and playing videogames rather than engaging in creative activities. Another is the lack of creativity development in our schools. In effect, it’s left to the luck of the draw who becomes creative: there’s no concerted effort to nurture the creativity of all children.

Around the world, though, other countries are making creativity development a national priority.

• In 2008 British secondary-school curricula—from science to foreign language—was revamped to emphasize idea generation, and pilot programs have begun using Torrance’s test to assess their progress. 

• The European Union designated 2009 as the European Year of Creativity and Innovation, holding conferences on the neuroscience of creativity, financing teacher training, and instituting problem-based learning programs—curricula driven by real-world inquiry—for both children and adults. 

• In China there has been widespread education reform to extinguish the drill-and-kill teaching style. Instead, Chinese schools are also adopting a problem-based learning approach.

Overwhelmed by curriculum standards, American teachers warn there’s no room in the day for a creativity class.   ...Researchers say creativity should be taken out of the art room and put into homeroom. ...Creativity isn’t about freedom from concrete facts. Rather, fact-finding and deep research are vital stages in the creative process. Scholars argue that current curriculum standards can still be met, if taught in a different way.

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 While our creativity scores decline unchecked, the current national strategy for creativity consists of little more than praying for a Greek muse to drop by our houses. ...Fortunately, the science can help....

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To understand exactly what should be done requires first understanding the new story emerging from neuroscience.

...Creativity has always been prized in American society, but it’s never really been understood. While our creativity scores decline unchecked, the current national strategy for creativity consists of little more than praying for a Greek muse to drop by our houses. The problems we face now, and in the future, simply demand that we do more than just hope for inspiration to strike. Fortunately, the science can help: we know the steps to lead that elusive muse right to our doors.