Biggest Drawing In The World..

Something that caught my eye today. With the help of a GPS device equipped suitcase and DHL, Eric Nordenankar attempts a self protrait by recreating the paths the suitcase traveled. There are really no boundaries to human imagination or potential!

Management Failures..

Ever wondered what would that mean? I had a brush of it in the corporate context. I have seen some great teams collapse due to sad leadership. I could see some real gem of talent migrate to greener pastures and some great ideas being nibbed at the start due to management failure or ego hassles. Sometimes it feels hopeless to see all this wastage and negative energy happening around just due to the dearth of management and leadership skills.

Why is it so difficult to sense the potential of people around us, how difficult it is to give credit to people for what they have done, and how much time does it take to acknowledge someone’s contribution? All it needs is a little bit of listening, a modicum of concern, enthusiasm, energy and genuine warmth, which became like a rare phenomenon in today’s context. Placing trust has become so difficult on today’s managers who are driven by their goal sheets and checklists with little concern to the people reporting to them. Probably being a part and parcel of knowledge intensive industry, I can see how the manipulation of energies of the people can make or break businesses in the current day context.

What an intoxicator power or authority is! I saw it change sweet smiling people into work extraction units. Yes, I understand professionalism is about of focusing on outcomes, and being work oriented but why cant we have a sensitivity to the expectations of the people around us? Just because we have an authority to wield the stick, we can’t really expect to get the work done by throwing our weight around. I see a lot of intellectual racism in action with a lot of unproductive team meetings, where people engage in blame game due to lack of time management, role clarity, and lack of trust and focus from management.

I see different types of managers around me, but those who work on their personal learning while aiding to the professional growth of their team are quite rare. What I see are those people who engage in politics and credit snatching, those who rest on the shoulders of their team and hammer them down to rise taller. Guess one of the toughest challenges of the current organizations is middle management. And I cant deny the importance of organizational culture in developing team, people and management skills. We talk about business continuity, right? How much onus are we placing on the leadership for talent migration, team failure, productivity concerns and team motivation levels? Guess we need some soul searching there..

Fight For Innovation!

I almost confront the issues of innovation in a daily basis. If we are to keep 10 people in a room and ask them to discuss about this, we would get 11 opinions and thats not a joke! 🙂

mabile et al (1996) propose: “All innovation begins with creative ideas . . . We define innovation as the successful implementation of creative ideas within an organization. In this view, creativity by individuals and teams is a starting point for innovation;the first is necessary but not sufficient condition for the second”. (p.1154-1155)

 

In the fast paced business world, the key differentiator for many organizations is how they manage to innovate and stay ahead of the market space. Yet everyone is struggling to hit that right formula to encourage innovation in a highly structured and formal setup like organizations. Can one really define a process for innovation? Its all about bringing in an assortment of random experiments to hit the right nail. Frankly, what works for me may not work for you! Sadly, one may ignore the finer nuances of the organizational culture and dynamics. Yet, those are the factors that encourage or stifle experimentation in a professional set up. All we have are broad techniques and tools: be it mind maps, six hats, lateral thinking or brainstorming, ultimately it all depends on the people who are applying them!

If I had to think of my two cents on this, innovation as a word sounds quite like a jargon, especially after hearing about it so much in corporate context! If I have to apply it to myself, being creative in thought is going to define innovation in personal context.

So many times, I find people getting stifled by the structure looming over their head to realize their personal passions. (Passion and innovation go hand in hand as the most often misquoted words of the century esp. in the corporate context!) We may hunt for various reasons as to why this structure is not conducive or we can embark on a single experiment to do what we love. What’s your pick?

Think of what difference Creativity @ Work brings in professional life. It makes you visible, alive, vocal and that reflects in your attitude and expression. Being Creative always brings self satisfaction and recognition! I can’t really comment on the level of freedom of expression in the corporate context, yet I believe that being creative beats boredom! So fight for yourself, for goading that inner sparks, for innovation and for being Alive!

World’s Famously Wrong Predictions

This is quite an old forwarded wisdom! 🙂 Yet, going through this makes me ponder about the uncertainity of future!

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Lee de Forest, 1926, inventor of the cathode ray tube:
Theoretically, television may be feasible, but I consider it impossibility–a development which we should waste little time dreaming about.

Thomas J. Watson, 1943, Chairman of the Board of IBM:
I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.

It doesn’t matter what he does, he will never amount to anything. – Albert Einstein’s teacher to his father, 1895

It will be years – not in my time – before a woman will become Prime Minister. – Margaret Thatcher, 1974

This ‘telephone’ has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us. – Western Union internal memo, 1876

We don’t like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out. – Decca Recording Co. rejecting the Beatles, 1962

Who the hell wants to hear actors talk? – H. M. Warner, Warner Brothers, 1927

640K ought to be enough for anybody. – Bill Gates, 1981

Louis Pasteur’s theory of germs is ridiculous fiction. – Pierre Pachet, Professor of Physiology at Toulouse, 1872

Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons. – Popular Mechanics, forecasting the relentless march of science, 1949

We don’t need you. You haven’t got through college yet. – Hewlett-Packard’s rejection of Steve Jobs, who went on to found Apple Computers

King George II said in 1773 that the American colonies had little stomach for revolution.

An official of the White Star Line, speaking of the firm’s newly built flagship, the Titanic, launched in 1912, declared that the ship was unsinkable.

In 1939 The New York Times said the problem of TV was that people had to glue their eyes to a screen, and that the average American wouldn’t have time for it.

An English astronomy professor said in the early 19th century that air travel at high speed would be impossible because passengers would suffocate.

Airplanes are interesting toys, but they have no military value. – Marshal Ferdinand Foch in 1911

With over 50 foreign cars already on sale here, the Japanese auto industry isn’t likely to carve out a big slice of the U.S. market. – Business Week, 1958

Whatever happens, the U.S. Navy is not going to be caught napping. – Frank Knox, U.S. Secretary of the Navy, on December 4, 1941

Stocks have reached what looks like a permanently high plateau. – Irving Fisher, Professor of Economics, Yale University, October 16, 1929.

Connect to Desktop with your Mobile!

Remote Desktop for Mobiles gives you the unique ability to connect to your desktop computer through the mobile phone and interact with it remotely. Along with the remote desktop that you can view on the phone display in real time, you can execute mouse and keyboard commands using the phone’s joystick or buttons. Besides, the Java client for usual Web browsers allows remote accessing from any other computers with various Web browsers and OS without installation of additional software.

Using Remote Desktop for Mobiles, you can send and receive mail, browse the Internet, edit a document in a word processor, copy, cut, paste files or folders and do hundreds of other things that you typically do behind your home or office computer. The intuitively transparent interface, simple navigation and the list of commonly used options fully compensate for the inconveniences of mobiles. On top of all this is the strong encryption algorithm that guarantees the highest level of data transfer protection.

Track your city with Mobile Tags!

Mobotag, developed by Marta Lwin reveals the hidden layers of a city through an active exchange of location based media and text messages via the cellphone. This brings in a new era of collaborative phone tagging of the city. Part virtual graffiti, part walking tour, "mobotag" creates a spontaneous and easy way for tagging a neighborhood via the cellphone. Send and view messages, images, videos and sounds and see art, read stories, and watch a hidden layer of the city reveal itself.

By sending a text message to "mobotag", with your city location, you begin an interactive tour of a neighborhood. Using a unique geocoding feature, "mobotag" tells you what other messages exist in your local area. In the near future "mobotag" will also feature art projects including "flyHere," a mobile phone audio installation featuring native bird calls; "bugBytes," collectible graphical bugs originating at major telecoms around NYC; and "lookHere," a written work in short form by a native NY writer.

A Million Dollar Home Page!

Here goes a news, which albeit a little old, proves the fact that innovation springs when one is faced with unusual circumstances, questionable challenges and stretched targets. The way Tew made money from his Million Dollar Home Page never fails to inspire me as it is a perfect example of changing the rules of the market with a dash of creativity and conviction.

Now here is the desi version! http://www.lakhpatipage.com

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A 21 year old boy, Alex Tew from UK has made $900,000 selling pixels on his homepage!

He had the brainstorm for his million dollar home page, called, logically enough, http://www.milliondollarhomepage.com, while lying in bed thinking out how he would pay for university.

The idea: turn his home page into a billboard made up of a million dots, and sell them for a dollar a dot to anyone who wants to put up their logo. A 10 by 10 dot square, roughly the size of a letter of type, costs $100.

He sold a few to his brothers and some friends, and when he had made $1,000, he issued a press release. That was picked up by the news media, spread around the Internet, and soon advertisers for everything from dating sites to casinos to real estate agents to The Times of London were putting up real cash for pixels, with links to their own sites. So far they have bought up 911,800 pixels. Tew’s home page now looks like an online Times Square, festooned with a multi-colored confetti of ads.

“All the money’s kind of sitting in a bank account,” Tew told Reuters from his home in Wiltshire, southwest England. “I’ve treated myself to a car. I’ve only just passed my driving test so I’ve bought myself a little black mini.”

The site features testimonials from advertisers, some of whom bought spots as a lark, only to discover that they were receiving actual valuable Web hits for a fraction of the cost of traditional Internet advertising.

Meanwhile Tew has had to juggle running the site with his first term at university, where he is studying business. “It’s been quite a difficulty trying to balance going to lectures and doing the site,” he said. But he may not have to study for long. Job offers have been coming in from Internet companies impressed by a young man who managed to figure out an original way to make money online. “I didn’t expect it to happen like that,” Tew said. “To have the job offers and approaches from investors — the whole thing is kind of surreal. I’m still in a state of disbelief. ******

Web Activated Telephony!

Jajah deals about web activated telephony. It follows a similar concept of hyperlinking the phone numbers on the websites as the way an email is highlighted. A person has to just click the number to make a call. Now, they have integrated it with FireFox as a plug-in. Also, Jajah promises net based calling from India to any phone. Interesting, isn’t it?

Bluetooth Based Video Broadcasting!

Guess MobileVideoNet is trying to creat the next YouTube on mobiles..

MobileVideoNet is a new platform dealing with video, public space and mobile phones. Founded in January 2005 and since researching, producing and offering a new medium by simple means: 3GP video.

Most of the new generation mobile phones are equiped with a videocamera, internet and wireless communication technology: bluetooth. Large groups of people nowadays own such a hightech mobile phone and are now able to shoot and share photo- and videofiles.

Videos can be offered to everyone with a mobile phone with bluetooth on it. This way the network of passersby become a dynamic gallery free of charge. Passersby at a certain designated area get offered and can watch videos on their mobile phone.

Click Here to Catch the Details!

Teen Buzz and Teenager Repellent!!

Teenager Repellent?

Ever heard of it? Mosquito is launched as a is a teenager repellent – an ultrasonic device that emits a sound only audible to teenagers. Click here to read about the details!

In the Company’s own words:

“The Mosquito ultrasonic teenage deterrent is the solution to the eternal problem of unwanted gatherings of youths and teenagers in shopping malls and around shops. The presence of these teenagers discourages genuine shoppers and customers’ from coming into your shop, affecting your turnover and profits. Anti social behaviour has become the biggest threat to private property over the last decade and there has been no effective deterrent until now.

It seems that there is a very real medical phenomenon known as presbycusis or age related hearing loss which, according to The Merck Manual of Diagnosis and Therapy, “begins after the age of 20 but is usually significant only in persons over 65″. It first affects the highest frequencies (18 to 20 kHz) notably in those who have turned 20 years of age”. It is possible to generate a high frequency sound that is audible only to teenagers.”

Now comes the most interesting part!!

Teen Buzz!

Well some of our smart teens have recorded the ultra-high sound – audible only to under-20s- onto their cell phones, and are now receiving calls and text messages in class – without teachers having the faintest idea of what is going on.They call it Teen Buzz, and it’s spreading it from phone to phone via text messages and Bluetooth. Seems like a new market is blooming in there!

Future of Ringtones….????

Its time for a new concept called Alert tones. Several wireless operators are expected to introduce musical “alert tones” — a snippet of a song lasting between two and five seconds, that users can assign to play when they receive incoming text messages and voice mail, similar to a ringtone.

Endtone seeks to replace the beeping that occurs when a call has been dropped, concluded or otherwise disconnected with a musical alert.

PhoneBites, has a service called Razz that enables phone users to insert audio clips into active conversations, outgoing messages and voice mail. Well, is there a limit to personalization?

Want To Show Who Is Calling?

What if people could see who you are talking to, or at least get an idea? Would you love to wear your heart on your sleeve? Well, here comes the answer! DotDotDot is a wearable display that connects to your mobile phone and is triggered by your communication. Dotdotdot connects to your phone over bluetooth. designing animations requires a java application. Once you’ve saved the animations to your friends numbers, then all you have to do is call.

Skype Over Mobile!

SoonR Talk empowers you to make Skype calls all over the world from your mobile phone. The User is no longer tied to thePC. Its a great application which conferences you and your buddy using Skype and requires the SoonR client on the desktop and a data plan on the mobile. International calling is never this economical!

Also check SoonR Desktop, which enables a user to remotely access his desktop through his mobile. What more, it works even when your PC is off! Interesting application, isn’t it?

Interactive Advertising!

DAEM Interactive is a software company based in Barcelona which develops “augmented reality” technologies for camera-phones which include an image recognition platform focused on mobile marketing and advertisement campaigns. Their technology identifies advertisements photographed by users and sends back related multimedia contents.

Brands and advertising agencies get to boost their marketing campaigns and promotions without having to make special developments or changes, maximizing their budget. And for users, it’s as easy as taking a picture. Users can interact with brands in a non intrusive way, where and when they want to, by simply pointing their camera phones at an ad (magazine or billboard) and clicking. Then, they can MMS the content to the DAEM server and DAEM software enables them to interact directly with the information and access the contents they are looking for.

Well, the service is based on an interesting concept, yet it needs to mature in the offering. Can this offering be enhanced to offer details just by pointing the mobile over the Ad? Can it host interactive polling, commenting and messaging? Looks like its a long way to go!

Integration of Telecom and Textile via Bluetooth

Mobeeline is an emotional mobile service based on wearable technology. The basic focus of this service lies in stimulating people’s emotions with an interaction between mobile and wearable technology, and to develop a social network service between friends.

The main goal is to create a wearable Bluetooth accessory that can receive data from a mobile phone. For example, let us assume that there are two mobile phone users. One user can send operative directions to the other’s clothes as the user wants. Without the two users having to meet, they can share their feelings and emotions by sending signals to each other’s clothes. Using our service, they will be changed the colors of each others garments, certain patterns or they can send emoticons to LEDs on the garment.

Check out Mobeeline for further details!

Well, the question still remains, do I want to wear my heart (rather my friend’s feelings) on the sleeve?

Mobile Visual Search!

Imagine how simple it would be if you just take a picture of something with your Mobile and search it via Internet. It would take the search engine and online shopping to the next level and enhance the comfort factor in our life.

Check out what Nevenvision and Mobot got to say over this.

Much like the Photo2Search project being developed by Microsoft Research Asia, a new cameraphone-based image recognition service called “Search By Camera!“ is promising to help consumers acquire info on products by simply snapping a picture while shopping.

The Calling of the Virtual World!

When did I ever dream that I would be able to create a virtual life out of imagination? Well with second life one can do lot more. U can live an entirely different virtual life on the web and even trade your creations, sell the land, dress your virtual person and do lot more. Click here to check the recent story line in BussinessWeek about the implications of this virtual world on Teens.

Pondering over the implications, I am just amazed over the possibilities and the opportunities offered by the virtual worlds. Looking at the darker side, I am worried about the vanishing blur between the reality and the virtual life styles and the new levels of addiction it may span in teenagers. For now, let’s bask under the sheer optimism and the engagement of the creative geniuses across the world!

Face Recognition in Photo Search

Well, that’s what http://www.riya.com promises to do. Well, in simple terms that means that I can tag my friends and relatives and can search through those volumes of photos to catch up on exactly whom I wanted to see. Sounds cool!

Mobile Scaner!

Ever been lazy to jot down the notes from the white board or a document? U may discover a friend in ScanR. Scan, copy and fax with your camera phone or digital camera. scanR uses advanced imaging processing and data extraction technologies to convert photos into legible, searchable PDF files. With Document Tagging, where each document sent to scanR is tagged with the keywords extracted from the text on the page, ScanR enables easy organization of documents to facilitate quick searches using Google™ Desktop or other desktop search tools.

Click Here to Get the Details.

nThrum

Well, here it goes.. You landed at New Delhi Airport and can’t make out any sense of the Direction Board. What do you do then? nThrum has got an answer for that. Just focus on the test and search. Its as simple as that. Using nThrum, one can focus his mobile on any text in the real world and search that text on the web. Sounds easy than typing the whole thing in Google! It comes as a free ware to be downloaded onto a mobile phone. What more can one ask for?

Click Here for More Details!

Click on the Real World!

Sounds surprising, isn’t it? Well that’s what http://www.geovector.com/ promises to do! GeoVector enables a User to point their mobile phones at various public spaces to get the details of an object, to buy the tickets of their favorite show, or engaging in multi party gaming with friends by incorporating a GPS component. Well, its called life empowered by technology!

Build A Bear!

A retail chain which allows children to create their own teddy bears.. well, sounds interesting isn’t it? I have always liked to hold a lovely teddy, and the fun just doubles if I can design or personalize or create that dream teddy in my mind! A very perceptive insight into human nature made this Build-A-Bear Workshop retail chain a roaring success.

Click here to catch the details!

Welcome to my Quest for Innovation!

Working in an ideation lab, I thought its high time I would chronicle my curiosity over the innovation multiplying in the world around me. Innovation is the necessary dynamics of the business and its quite well needed for the survival of the organizations in this fierce battle field. I hope to salute the innovators in this blog world, who stand to the Goliaths, changing the rules of the game.

Here is the link for my Quest for Innovation!

Mechanical Pets with Character..

Recently, I read an article about the launch of Mechanical Puppies launched by Sony. These toys develop a character based on the way their owner is treating them. I really didn’t understand this desire in humanbeings to control their loved ones. Why people have pets? Its because they like to love and be loved in return. Admit it or not, pets are more loyal! Pets and especially dogs give a feeling that they need you. The kind of loyalty and affection they shower on their owners is tremendous. If a person really loves pets, can’t he get a real pet? Why does anyone want to manufacture a mechanical pet with manufactured character? What’s the purpose in that? It seems that there is no end to the human imagination and greed. Is that really a need? Or is it that the current generation became so mechanical that they can only be loved by machines?

I marvel at the creative effort and the dedication of the members who design new and innovative products. What upsets me are the assumptions inherent in the new products. They really make me wonder as to where are we heading as a civilization? It catches me in the ageless discussion of Man Vs Nature. Yet, I know the beauty of discussion lies in the lack of solution. Certain issues are just too complex, aren’t they?