Karen Jenkin’s Blog

If you’re immersed in Web 2.0 applications and terminology, then take a look at this light-hearted view of how the phenomenon could affect your local supermarket.

Widgets – little self-contained applications that can be placed on a web page – are proliferating with the rise in online blogging, portals and social networking sites that have opened up their platforms (e.g. Facebook). Widgets effectively operate in a symbiotic relationship with the site or platform they sit on, each helping the other drive up interest and user traffic (and thus advertising potential).

Social networking sites like LinkedIn and MySpace are licking their lips in anticipation of what can be achieved by effectively throwing open web application platforms to external developers. The same goes for venture capitalists and others who want to get in on the action: Google has a program called Gadget Ventures that provides grants or seed money to widget developers, whilst venture capital firm Bay Partners (US) has setup a multi-million dollar program called AppFactory to invest in startups purely targeting Facebook. Those social networking sites yet to open their platform will be feeling the pressure to follow suit.

Beyond the open-source community, this is part of the first major wave of businesses allowing external, adhoc development contributions to their products. The widgets trend will let businesses work out how they will manage and take advantage of outside development, as well as the concept of virtual “resources”, and to prepare for more collaboration in the future; all with a relatively low level of risk. Only time will tell how these collaborative relationships will morph and mature in the coming years. However, businesses cannot afford to ignore this trend.

There is a groundswell of concern in the business world towards addressing the environmental and sustainability concerns of staff, customers and the world at large. The rise in carbon offsetting and tree planting initiatives (which deserve a separate discussion as to their long-term sustainability outcomes!) shows that business leaders are trying to grapple with how to make a difference.

However, as with all trends, there are some businesses that are simply riding the back of this green wave for their own self-interest. There are also businesses that think they’re doing the right thing, but just don’t seem to get it when it comes to making fundamental changes to how they or their industry operate. This is where government guidance, assistance and legislation can help. But not like this:

At the recent National Small Business Summit in Sydney, one of the Australian government departments had a booth with the following ‘Plant the seed for a green business’ promotional pack:

Extract from marketing blurb:

“By planting this seed, your business can make a green start, help the environment and gain customers searching for enviro-friendly businesses.”

What on earth were they thinking?! Whilst planting a tree has some merit, what was the environmental cost of all that packaging?

Whoever was in charge of this part of the ‘Greening your business’ campaign has completely missed the point and undermined any credibility the Department might have had in setting a good example for greening business. Alternatively, they’ve just jumped on the shameless self-promotion bandwagon for this hot topic. Regardless, it’s enough to put me off looking at their website to “discover more about how to green your business”.

Ever since virtual reality simulators and the movie Minority Report appeared, we have been tantalised with the possibilities of human-computer interfaces beyond the keyboard, drawing tablet and screen. From recent events, it seems that at least one of these new types of interfaces is coming of age: the multi-touch screen. In general, a multi-touch screen allows people to manipulate data / objects and navigate in a much more flexible and “free form” way using gestures and touch. Let’s see some in action…

Earlier in the year at TED 2007, Jeff Han had the newest version of his very impressive multi-touch screen technology on display. Here’s the video of an impromptu demo from TED.

The official video can be found on Perceptive Pixel’s web site.

Meanwhile, Bill Gates recently appeared on a morning TV show in the USA to showcase Microsoft’s new Surface table (previously codenamed “Milan”). It is a 30-inch diagonal multi-touch screen in a horizontal table orientation. Here’s a video of that TV guest spot.

The word on the street is that the technology will probably make its way onto other consumer devices in the not-too-distant future, such as mobile phones. Of course, there are numerous business and educational applications that Microsoft will be looking to capture as well; Bill mentions restaurants as an example in the video.

So when Microsoft comes out with press releases and populist appearances for a technology, you know it is getting closer to the hands of the consumer; it has a targeted USA release date of late 2007. Mind you, at a cool $10,000USD for it’s projected launch price, it’s got a long way to go before it hits the masses!

Let’s see if 2008 kicks off real and affordable business scenarios beyond these demos.

eBay recently held an internal Demo Expo, where employees could use eBay’s own developer API to create and showcase new features and/or concept applications. Fortunately, Robert Scoble was one of a few outsiders able to attend the expo. He has publicly released videos of interviews and demos for a few of the ideas showcased. The videos are interesting to watch in and of themselves, but I wanted to highlight eBay’s approach to getting employees excited and motivated about new possibilities.

We’ve all heard the word innovation bandied around at one time or another in the business and political arenas, yet more often than not innovation practices are not integrated into the day-to-day running of a business (if the practices exist at all). There are a couple of takeaways from the eBay example to learn or borrow from in order to enhance the business idea funnel:

1. Give everyone a chance to contribute ideas

Knowledge is not concentrated in a particular business area alone, so why should the opportunity for contributing new ideas be restricted to a select few? Including everyone in the process gives the variety of perspectives and experiences that is needed to seed different innovation possibilities. In fact, this principle can even be extended to include the customers of a business.

eBay’s Expo was geared towards the use of their developer API. So in order involve as many employees as possible in this event, eBay hosted an internal web site where any employee could post his/her idea and (try to) hook up with developers to help implement it.

Also, to seed further ideas, the Expo would have prepared employees for what new applications may appear from within or outside of the business in a relatively short timeframe.

2. Provide feedback to employees on ideas contributed

Whether it is one-on-one or in “event form” in front of others (like eBay’s Demo Expo), feedback allows employees to understand on what basis assessments and decisions are made on ideas. This should promote discussion amongst employees and help sharpen their thinking re: more opportunity-focused ideas that are relevant to the business.

Another benefit from performing feedback sessions is showing appreciation for employees’ individual efforts. This is critical to keep the ideas and discussions flowing within a business. Feedback also shows that a business is serious about acting on ideas by dedicating time to the process.

The above are some thoughts on facilitating ideas. What particular methods does your business use for idea generation?

[Note: I am not affiliated with eBay in any way]