Crowd-Accelerated Innovation

Chris Anderson taught me a new concept: Crowd-Accelerated Innovation.
Three thing are needed for this:

  • a (big) crowd,
  • light (open visibility)
  • and desire.
  • This is most easily achieved by utilising web video such as YouTube, where it is possible to realise global innovation. It is however my strong belief that the concept of crowd-accelerated innovation is applicable also to smaller groups such as companies, universities and other organisations. There are several reasons against openness in many organisations; it may be fear (don’t upset the boss – I might lose my bonus), personal power (my knowledge gives me my position) or many other reasons. Real innovation is so much easier achieved in a truly open climate.

    Watch Chris Anderson’s TED talk here:

    What is a book, actually?

    I believe that the book as an artefact has a very strong notion with most people. “I would never read a book on a crappy screen” may still today be heard from a majority of people. IDEO has recently published a video showing three different concepts of future book design. Of course they are presented on an iPad-looking device. Watch this video and judge for yourself. My thinking is that we some time in the not so far away future will look at today’s books with the same kind of fascination we see the Dead Sea Scrolls.

    The Future of the Book. from IDEO on Vimeo.

    Things poorly designed

    Seth Godin at Gel 2006 from Gel Conference on Vimeo.
    Seth presents a long list of reasons why things are broken or merely poorly designed. Some broken things may be fixed, others not. It is as always very entertaining and rewarding to listen to Seth, but I especially like his discussion on things broken by purpose. It may be wise to realise that some stupid signs maybe were designed to grab your attention.

    My favourite among his many examples is this sign:

    Check out Seth’s Blog at http://sethgodin.typepad.com/

    Reading on the beach

    iPad and Kindle Reading Speeds

    In one of his WhatTheyThink Videos, Frank Romano alerted me on an interesting study on the usability of eBooks. The original article was from Jakob Nielsen’s Alertbox, July 2, 2010.  It was a fairly small study comprising only 24 people. Each person was tried on four reading conditions: a printed book, a PC, an iPad, and a Kindle 2.

    The text was a short story by Ernest Hemingway, which according to Frank is easy to read, because it’s all simple sentences, virtually no semicolons, no em-dashes, it is basic writing.  The result was that reading the e-book version was slightly slower than reading the print. Both the iPad and the Kindle rated as high in terms of satisfaction as the printed book.  But the test persons were not happy with the PC — reading a PC felt like being at work.  The conclusion is that well-designed eBook readers provide as good a reading environment as the printed book. With the strong development of tablets, there is obviously a strong future for eBooks. This future is maybe already here, since Amazon recently reported that Kindle books are outselling printed books.

    The printed book may still be preferred on the beach

    Innovation is not a big issue in the paper industry

    RISI recently published their list of the top 50 movers and shakers of the paper industry. The list comprises the usual suspects, but also a few amusing surprises. No. 5 on the list is Steve Jobs, since Apple’s products have changed consumer behavior faster than any other. The only innovator from within the paper industry is Mikael Lindström of Innventia at No. 42.

    If there is one thing the pulp and paper industry needs in the 21st century, it is innovation. It must find new ways and new products to make – not just simply turning pulp into the commodity of paper.
    Fortunately there are some very able and creative brains on the case. One of them is Mikael Lindström, adjunct professor, and research manager at Sweden’s Innventia, a research institute working for the pulp, paper and packaging industries. Since 1998, Lindström has been the senior research manager, for the New Materials and Composites division as well as a “principal investigator” for biomimetic fiber engineering.
    Lindström has developed a concept for integrated materials – Hierarchic Design – using pulp as one of the major ingredients which has been presented both at scientific conferences and twice during the prestigious Design Week in Milan. This included market pulp producer Södra’s Parupu children’s chair and a designer lamp, both made out of DuraPulp. The lamp has very recently won Sweden’s biggest and most prestigious design prize, Design S. The bi-annual award is granted by the Swedish Design Association.
    Mikael Lindström, Innventia innovator

    Increasing innovative work behaviour

    An old friend of mine actually reads my blog and gives me comments via e-mail. After reading about the Linchpin story, he gave me a link to Gisela Jönsson’s interesting blog. What really caught my eye was an intriguing short version of her thesis on Factors explaining innovative behaviour of employees. So I embedded the prezi here. Enjoy!

    Print is Eternal – or…

    The following is the first few lines in a hilarious discussion between more or less extinct media types.

    Moderator: Welcome to Obsolete Anonymous! I’ve gathered you all here to welcome our latest member, the Print Industry.
    Print Industry: Hello, everyone. But there’s been a mistake. I don’t belong here.
    (chuckles all around)
    Print Industry: I’m serious. I’m not obsolete. I’m relevant. Print books have been around for hundreds of years. They’re never going to be replaced.
    VHS Tapes: Yeah, we all thought like that once.
    LP Records: It’s called denial. It’s tough to deal with at first.

    You can read the full text at A Newbie’s Guide to Publishing. Thanks to Patrick Henry at the Print CEO blog for the alert.

    Johnny Johnsson

    Johnny kicks ass at last day on the job…

    Johnny Johnsson was celebrating his last day at work with a three-hour presentation of his achievements as company doctor at Stora Enso Fors over a period of more than 20 years. During the first 10 years, Fors became the healthiest company in Sweden. In 2004, he was presented with a medal by the Swedish king His Majesty Carl XVI Gustaf.
    His impression of the recent development in the Stora Enso group was however less than positive. Centralisation and efforts to create a global identity have created anonymity. Endless reorganisations, rigid company directives, shared service centres, outsourcing (Bangalore!) and centralised software systems (SAP) have reinforced this negative development. Only by developing a local identity in a global context can a positive company culture be established.

    Bitter return to home

    Helsingin Sanomat has summarised the rise and fall of Finnish paper industry’s conquest of American and European paper companies. In the year 2000, the three companies Stora Enso, UPM and M-real were all very confident that their acqusitions were truly adding value to the owners. Ten years later, the truth is that it all was a gigantic loss of money.
    See also another Helsingin Sanomat article on the same topic.