We're all about collaborative innovation!
It's not an innovation until it actually creates value for someone.
We spend lots of time in meetings with people who are interested only in "admiring the problem."
We're hear to listen to good stories and to be energized by them.
Walt Mossberg and Bill Taylor are co-hosts
Professional amateur--jump deeply into someone's world and learn all there is to know about it.
Worked on a DoD project at RISD to create a casualty simulator, i.e., screaming, bleeding simulated casualties
Had tech background, but not background in medicine
Participatory design (IDEO)
Didn't know how to ask the right questions; asking stupid questions, Needed to know how the body actually worked in order to build a realistic model
Went to paramedic school; more than he needed/probably a really big mistake but learned alot.
The "golden hour"--the time in which you're going to save someone's life or you won't.
Intersection of design and medicine--create equipment for firefighters that would allow them to initiate lifesaving procedures right away., Designed a simpler suit, Adaptable to other needs
Joined National Ski Patrol/working on alpine life support, Time lag is the challenge, Premise has been "load and go"/no medicine just get people to hospital
Came up with a variety of ideas to make life support tools portable to the mountain.
Lesson of this story--thought he would become a better designer (probably true)
Medicine part really changed his life, Became intimately involved in the lives of others, Given his a different sense of social responsibility
Did something intensively collaborative in a business (BBC)
Brought Web 2.0 to BBC before there was Web 2.0
Distribution of expertise--gatekeeping approach to expertise is counterproductive
The "daftness" of some organizational life, We fight with each other when we should be helping each other, More competition than collaboration/tribalism
Created networks of people within BBC who were doing cool things, Making connections, Didn't have to talk to IT so it was easier to bring technologies into the organization
Cluetrain Manifesto, Brought Chris Locke into BBC to talk to people/many weren't familiar with the Web, Spoke authentically about how his life "was falling apart" because he broke up with girlfriend, This is how we speak on the Web; we open up and it can be messy.
Brought technologies in slowly and they have taken root/called it "social computing"
Raised all kinds of issues, Asking questions, Not always have the right answer, Different people coming from different places, Authority of managers threatened
Encouraged people to be honest/one person initiated a discussion on being single.
BBC tells stories and these technologies supported storytelling in a social and collaborative sense
Try to be a whole that is greater than the sum of the parts
Got good at asking questions that took people to the next level of understanding
Got good at asking questions that took people to the next level of understanding, Encouraged others to take responsibility
Left 18 months ago and the tools continue to be used even though they are not being managed
People given the right tools and the right level of trust don't do the wrong thing/they are professionals who want to do good things
Point of my story: collaborative potential of the Web that we are still continuing to harness
"They say in my business, fix a ticket, make a friend for life"
6 years since 9/11, Remembers what bin Laden said: he's coming back, and it's going to be 100K next time, 100K children, We've done it for them: we've buried 100K murder victims in the last six years, 50 people murdered everyday on America's streets and the face of it is young
Son graduated from college and went to law school, Bought him a bicycle for graduation and its was stolen, First call was to his father and not to 911
911 has been the paradigm of American policing for a generation, How does the son of an American police chief not know to call 911?
Crime is intimate and personal and we just don't know the police anymore
Most of the crime in America is not reported because people don't report it to the police/they tell people they know.
Police have become anonymous/they have become strangers
Even after crime is reported, that is where it stops. Most crime doesn't get solved.
It's not about getting rid of 911/it's about getting beyond 911
People call us for everything/police is the agency of first resort and the agency of last resort, People still don't tell us alot because they don't know us.
Community policing/working in neighborhoods
Imagine if you were in a terrible accident, rushed to hospital and it was the first time you met your family doctor, This is how it is with police
Policing is undergoing a quiet revolution, Becoming a different kind of force, Moved into the neighborhoods and become part of the community
Crime is down in Providence while up in RI, New England and country, We have an honest mayor/he gave the police force back to the people, Have begun to develop to trust with the people again, "As best as we can tell, no one in this room has a warrant."
"You don't have to know the uniform, you don't have to love the uniform. You just have to know and love the person in it."
One day, I hope to honor my father when people say, "Who is your family cop?"
WM--not going to talk technology but about how to build technology so it's relevant to real people.
JF--37signals builds web-based tools to help people do very simple things and then get out of their way., Three major products: Basecamp, Highrise, Backpack all built on Ruby on Rails
WM--how come most of America is shackled to a piece of bloated crap like Outlook?
JF--traditional software industry is structured to build crap, You buy it and then to get more money out of you they build new versions with more features, 37signals and similar companies deliver their updates via the Web so there are no versions
WM--at one time, Outlook was a good idea. Now it is a mess.
WM--37s has a different model but still subject to the pressure of feature creep.
WM--how do you balance your mantra of simplicity with a self-selected vocal set of customers who want more features?
JF--you must be a good editor to make software simpler
JF--the model allows us to say no more often/the max any company can pay 37s is $149 per month/MS needs to respond to individual customers paying lots of money
WM--feature creep is prevalent/Quicken is a mess.
JF--you have to be a hard ass/be an enemy of mediocrity
WM--do you have to be Steve Jobs? JF--absolutely, Steve Jobs is best biz mind of last 50 years
WM--iLife great multimedia tool w/o lots of features/simple/better tool than you can buy for Windows and it comes on the computer.
WM--Jobs is a dictator JF--i love it, it's unbelievably fantastic
JF--we need more opinionated companies/we believe in our way of doing things
WM--let's talk about why open source is a failure/Firefox is one big success but too many features
WM--an open source developer would not know a regular consumer from a bag of Cheetohs
JF--the customer experience is not the top concern in open source, it is democratizing software
JF--open source developers hire someone to "paint the walls" at the end/37s designs from UI first
JF--leaders make great decisions/groups don't/I don't think the crowd should decide hardly anything
JF--I'd rather be hated and loved than neither/have opinions/say no to new stuff.
I am a bureaucrat. I'm from Washington, and I'm from here to help.
DHS--experiment in nuclear fusion of disparate agencies
Work with first responders--35K fire departments across the country, Want to help? Buy a raffle ticket or a muffin! (We need a new pumper.)
I get to take risks with millions of your dollars so we don't need to put billions into acquisitions
The perils of innovation
Innovation through deception
"Every truly great accomplishment is at first impossible!" (Fortune Cookie)
X-Craft--an innovation that is currently in use
A subsequent ship has failed...why? Bureaucracy pushed back against success of X-Craft
One innovation success story did not translate to another effort.
It's good to be "right-sized." (Speaking of Rhode Island)
"Our Founding Fathers wanted a confrontational and inefficient form of government." The good news is we have it. The bad news is we have it.
9/11 Commission--"a failure of imagination" "On my watch, we won't have a failure of imagination."
Creating green buildings simply
Don't get tied up in complexity
Designs buildings in ways that avoid typical energy-wasting problems
My business is sometimes selling less rather than more
Outcome is not hardship for people in the building
Doing less but creating more value
Integrity in the construction process
Blank slide--the amount of subsidies and government grants used in her work
Pasteur--chance favors the prepared mind
You look at management books, they only talk about the prepared mind. They don't talk about luck.
Luck matters. Can we actually create a luck generator ourselves?
Pasteur's statement is not actually very useful advice
There will always be random encounters in our lives
Will they change our lives?
Swarm intelligence--random encounter with a fellow Frenchman at conference took him down this pathway
One encounter changes you and prepares you for the next encounter.
You may encounter someone but you're not ready for it yet, i.e., your mind is not yet prepared.
Nature recombines things in different ways
The prepared mind should favor chance.
Create your own serendipity engine, Stumbleupon
The crowd is pretty dumb.
For innovation to happen, it should not be social, i.e., don't look at what others are doing.
Leverage the power of nature to recombine, Nymbler.com--your personal baby name assistant, Not based on what others life but new combinations based on the intrinsic properties of the name.
Sometimes, all we need to do is be human.
"hunch engine"
Started FEED in mid-90s/web-start-up
Walt Mossberg wrote a column about FEED in 1996
The push and pull of democratizing technologies and old distribution systems
Hunch--insight--The relationship between brains and cities
The Ghost Map
Important to study why bad ideas stick around for so long (sociology of error)
The scale of our lives that we care most about is our neighborhoods and communities
Zone of community--trapped local knowledge
Outside.in--capture local knowledge and organize it
It's not about the Eureka moment.
A hunch takes time to evolve...there's something there that needs to percolate
How can we create hunch supporting environments
Organizations are really structured to support those things
Find other people to connect with half-baked ideas to get what's missing w/o alienating them
Disconnect between people who are good at innovating and those who are good at making the case for why those innovations matter
Not just a generator of ideas but also an advocate for the idea
Everyone tells us to think outside the box, but we sometimes feel less constrained inside the box
Advocate for the box. We don't need to get out of the box. We need to find the right box and get in it.
High concept pitches--Die Hard on a bus (Speed) Jaws on a spaceship (Alien), A flavor of concreteness and specificity that aids decision-making
Savings & Loan Credit Union (AUS) We don't want to be first, but sure don't want to be third (internal tagline), Fast follower strategy
The right box can make all the difference
Give someone the gift of the box
Go box shopping
Boxes are constraints that liberate
People tell me 2001 was the worst year to start a business; i think it was great year
a lifestyle company originally
ultimately the entire business was about creativity
flip the entire model of marketing on its head
as the business grew, the company lost its north star
2003--started a blog to be radically transparent about organizational decision-making
2005: 90 Days of bzzagent--outside author wrote about what was happening inside the company for three months
as soon as profits enter into the equation, creativity goes out the window
Painter "Seth" became artist-in-residence for the company following failed project in which he was involved, No longer bound by the idea of a blog, helping people get engaged was as important as the outcome itself
Created word of mouth about bzzagent
how do you make wom work?
tried recording seth talking about his art and turned it into hold music
Created gethuman.com
Became caretaker for his father in 2001 after his mother died, took his car keys away, took over his bill paying, his father had difficulty interact with automated customer service systems, sometimes thought he was taking with actual people
found it difficult to deal with companies on his father's behalf/mergers & acquisitions were removing the dignity from the customer experience
paying money to companies but they won't talk to you
blog posting on this topic generated huge response
took an initial list of company customer service contacts and created a database of 100 companies
the site is a community and they have taken over it
many senior citizens involved to help restore some dignity to customers
companies started to share their secret codes, responding to the community's wishes
Best engineers--have empathy and they are lazy (what do I need to invent so I never have this problem again?)
Gethuman project is a movement
Runs Kayak.com--no automated customer service systems and everyone gets a personal reply to questions
blogged that Dell is in a "customer service death spiral", too many layers between customers and those who can solve problems
adding too many layers reduces the heat on those who could answer the question.
BT--how do ideas move?
three themes, power of humanity--so much of innovation is about human connection, power of locality--distribution of power and information away from the center toward the edge, power of simplicity--rapid shift necessitates simpler approaches
BT--what can we learn about making more effective human connections?, DH: simplicity (has it become a cliche?) not dumb it down, but prioritizing ideas, Giving people more choices can cause them freeze up, by being simple you are liberating people from decision paralysis
BT: what works best to help people communicate to others most effectively?, DB: people working with bzzagent didn't respond as much to rewards as recognition, people don't necessarily want more material stuff, but want to interact with someone
BT: what is it about gethuman.com that made a visceral connection?, PE: it's an existing problem that everyone has, everyone has their own story about poor customer service, BT: people still listen to the mass media, PE: does the story resonate with others?
BT: what makes a good story?, DH: Chip Heath has created a taxonomy of stories in Chicken Soup for the Soul (three different types of stories), connection plot--two people transcend a boundary to have a moment, challenge plot: action movies, David v. Goliath, creativity plot: a novel way to solve a problem (Newton and the apple), different types all have the power to inspire, DB: you need a great punch line (after the buzz, the thing must deliver), Snakes on a Plane vs. Borat, PE: advice to entrepreneurs pitching VCs--totally believe in your idea, believe it to the core, when two people are telling the story together, it makes a difference since different parts of the story will resonate with each of them
BT: authenticity--you must believe in your idea and you must conduct yourself in a way that lives the idea
BT to DB: tell the story to your advisory board, DB: advisory board stopped paying attention to the business, inserted slide in last slide deck saying advisor litigation pending d&o will not cover (only two people responded), advisory board was disbanded
BT: who is good at living brand internally?, DH: Fedex...delivering on time, Fedex driver in NYC whose truck broke down who persuaded airborne driver to take her around to complete her deliveries (won an award)
BT: what are some things you tell yourself to walk the talk, PE: starts with belief...if you don't believe it, it will show
BT: you have an idea you want to fight for...one last piece of advice, DH: ideas don't stick naturally...give 1/50th the amount of time to identifying the solution to how you will communicate it, PE: have fun!, DB: talk to customers and look for anyone who is willing to be passionate
Talking about illegal activities in which I've been personally involved
author of The Pirate's Dilemma, History of the remix, how graffiti has evolved
rules have changed, information once flowed in one direction, now it flows in many
piracy is a source of considerable innovation
pirate radio in London/loved it/became a DJ, 150 pirate radio stations still left in London
regular radio market and the pirates co-exist
new music is created in the pirate stations
became editor in chief of a magazine about pirate radio (RWD) and acted like a pirate itself
gave magazine away for free to a very targeted audience/charged a premium for advertising
left the magazine, married an American and began searching for what was next
Got involved in Action Against Hunger
Couldn't get MSM coverage but could provide footage to them
found professional camerapeople willing to shoot footage for no pay and no travel expenses
media volunteers + non-profits
founded wedia.tv
obsessed with space outside existing markets when companies won't go but where pirates will
Steve Jobs has successfully competed with pirates (iTunes)
Mark Cuban and multiple format release of movies
Big Pharma--piracy of name drugs in India raised life expectancy
pirates create a market space and a debate about what is right and wrong?
what if instead of suing pirates we compete with them?
when legitimate companies enter pirate spaces they legitimize what pirates do
to compete or not to compete, that is the question and that is the pirate's dilemma
Studio.com
power to the people
user generated content
consumer generated media
democratic publishing
changing the definitions of the words
tools to create, desktop publishing
tools to edit, desktop video
desktop everything
democratization of content creation
tools to share, YouTube
expanded definition of community, people living in same place or region, people who exchange ideas through networks (Rheingold), "technology aided wom", can now ignite discovery processes for others, today, if looking for information on frying turkeys, I may rely on the opinions of "Frank from Arkansas" over an "expert."
expanded definition of content, "explicit" such as a book, "lifecaching"--capture stuff you find and republish it, brands can support mediated content through tools
a certain number of rules will foster growth, too many will hamper growth
mantra: every action (if shared) is content
virtual worlds
relations as content
expanded definition of user
WM: virtual worlds, avatars, community online/so why is everyone here?, RSW: the age of also, we do this and also, and also, this is about having good conversations, how do we design great conversations, making connections with other people, what if we flipped copyright to the right to copy and the only ideas that were copyrighted were bad ideas?
is it good for business that CEOs are public figures?, RSW: i don't care if it is good, company leaders cannot legally tell the truth about their companies, we don't expect public officials to tell the truth, Steve Jobs isn't a truthful person in public/you want people to tell the truth, whatever people say is the truth, their truth at least, but it may not be factual
what is your new project?, New project--19, 20, 21 (19 cities that will have 20 milion people in the 21st century, collecting information on cities around the world
