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Idea Markets

August 13, 2009 in digital, internet, mashup by Stephen | No comments

Interesting software / concept that couples an online suggestion box for ideas, with a virtual stock market. Users can buy ’shares’ in an idea, driving up its value…nice for encouraging a bit of competition into the mix I reckon. And for companies that are interested in embedding innovation at the heart of their business, this could provide a catalyst towards a more creative culture…


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Google Caffeine increases social media prominence?

August 12, 2009 in Social web, User experience, customer experience, google, internet by Stephen | No comments

As more and more people give Caffeine a whirl, the increased prominence of results from the social media sphere appears to be a widespread phenomenon.

Interesting piece questioning the value of increased prominence of social media content within Google’s new, Caffeine-enhanced search engine results pages. The author suggests that maybe there isn’t extra value to be had from doing this – because relevancy is the most important thing in a search set.

via Econsultancy


TedGlobal 2009 Day 2 Session 1

July 23, 2009 in Social web, User experience, Web 2.0, internet by Stephen | No comments

Thanks to the very lovely Wieden+Kennedy, who kindly dedicated one of their  spanky (new?) auditoriums to screening a live stream from the TedGlobal 2009 conference, I and a few other LBi / ex-LBi folk enjoyed the first session from TED’s seminal conference series. Some highlights:

  • Jonathan Zittrain began the day by talking about random acts of kindness, and the potential for the simplifying things by removing some of the rules. He gave the example of a road crossing that had been overhauled, and traffic controls removed. Accident rates dramatically dropped. There are obvious learnings for people that design interaction…
  • I learned that Jimmy Wales didn’t originally intend Wikipedia to be quite so altruistic. I love stories like that (see: Flickr). His first intention was to develop a far more traditional encyclopaedia called ‘Newpedia’, in which experts proved their credentials before being invited to write articles.
  • In an interesting contrast to many social media commentators, Evgeny Morozov suggested that a more networked and contributing populace might actually help many totalitarian regimes (see Mashable’s guide to following the Iranian elections) create open source intelligence. “The KGB used to torture people for this information, now it’s all online!”
  • Asa Raskin’s demo of Ubiquity, an approach to using natural language to carry out tasks on the web that would currently demand a high level of effort. He gave the example of translating a block of text within a web page by selecting a paragraph and typing ‘translate this’ – and because the user’s context (language, intention) is already known, the tool can instantly carry out the action.
  • And finally, Rory Sutherland’s inspired talk on creating value from intangibles. And diamond shreddies had the audience in stitches…

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Reputation…or…history?

November 4, 2008 in Community, Community2.0, Social web, Web 2.0, internet by Stephen | No comments

Interesting piece that positions traditional views of reputation against a sense of history. In a world where everything is increasingly recorded, it asks if this is more important than an ephemeral sense of someone’s worth. Facts versus ‘opinion’…

Google's Friend Connect

May 13, 2008 in Community, Social web, User experience, Web 2.0, digital, internet by Stephen | No comments

So now Google jumps into the fray with their Friend Connect, a universal profile that will allow people to maintain one single profile across a number of different social sites. This concept has been talked about for ages now, and I guess it’s good that we’re seeing it come into fruition, with a number of other high profile sites such as Facebook and Myspace making similar plays.

It’s all about data portability, and that has to be a Good Thing, but I really do wonder how each of these sites intend to capture those ‘first use’ users that haven’t stepped into the social web world? Surely the valuations of all the major social players are based on the numbers of people registering with them, their data, and the friends that they bring with them – and as such, are we going to see a shift in how we measure their success on the back of this?

Via: Mashable

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Service Systems

May 1, 2008 in Business 2.0, Environment, User experience, business, customer experience, internet, service science by Stephen | 1 comment

Wow. I happened across a white paper produced by IBM & Cambridge University, with the title ‘Succeeding Though Service Innovation‘. It’s a first stab at trying to draw some shape onto what is essentially a fragmented, cross-disciplinary domain, and I have to say, it’s pretty bloody good. Read the rest of this entry »

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Brands becoming porous

May 1, 2008 in Business 2.0, Social web, User experience, Web 2.0, business, customer experience, digital, internet by Stephen | No comments

Hot on the heels of my post about My Starbucks Idea, I thought I’d share a couple of pieces of Brand 2.0 love that I’ve come across recently:

  • The church of co-creation and community, Communities Dominate Brands: go here for some deep insight into how some companies are recognising the (well-documented) need to get closer to their customers, and embed them into their processes.
  • Understanding what co-creation actually means: by Corante.

I’m starting to think of brands as being porous – for the reason that the word ‘porous’ implies a flow into something, but in a gradual, slow-but-sure way. It’s not like most large businesses move (to use Tom Peters’ phrase) at the speed of light, and yet they’re waking up to the fact that they have to constantly shift and adapt to the changing needs of their customers. So…porous.

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My Starbucks Idea

May 1, 2008 in Community2.0, Social web, User experience, customer experience, digital, internet by Stephen | 3 comments

This is fabulous example of a global company reaching out to its customer base and giving them the opportunity to share their ideas on how to reinvigorate its customer experience. Of course, the idea is only as good as Starbucks’ willing to adopt any of the suggestions that are made – and from what I’ve seen, they’re taking steps to do just that.

I’d like to see more companies taking this kind of approach – and it ties into some thinking I’ve been doing recently around brands and how they become more porous… 

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Some updates to the Multimap web site

April 11, 2008 in London, Mapping, User experience, Web 2.0, internet, mashup, microsoft, multimap by Stephen | 1 comment

Multimap web site displaying Tate Modern in Bird\'s Eye view

The team here at LBi have been working with Multimap to make improvements to the site, and start the job of integrating with Microsoft’s Live Search product. It went live yesterday, and among the improvements are:

 

  • 45-degree angle high resolution photography – aka ‘Bird’s Eye’
  • we’ve tweaked the route planner so that it displays within the main panel of the interface rather than being cramped into a ‘palette’ on the left-hand side of the screen; additionally we’ve introduced more realistic signage to help users scan long lists of instructions
  • you can now find a business through Multimap – putting them in the local search market; 

 

Read the rest of this entry »

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My statistical addiction

March 14, 2008 in Social web, User experience, Web 2.0, digital, flickr, internet by Stephen | No comments

Stats

Stats

Stats

I had the sudden realisation, the other day, that my current daily routine takes in a number of different statistical feeds – and this set me to thinking that *this* is part of the reason that creating your own content is fun. It’s the sense of audience that gives you more of a perspective on the stuff that you put out there.

So, I check out my Flickr stats on a regular basis, then I check my blog stats, and finally, less frequently, I check out LastFM stats for Inaura, one of the bands I used to play with.

It’s this stuff that is ’sticky’ for me – and I’m not normally obsessed by stuff like this…

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