November 27, 2007

the future is here

When I was a child (20-25 years ago), I was thinking about the 21st Century, as a time of living like in SF movies. Me and my friends expected flying cars, robots in every house...
Ok, these products was to futuristic, but let's see what we have in last 10 years: microvawe ovens everywhere, flat-screen TV's, internet, iPods, mobile phones, GPS, online games... We're already living the future :)

November 26, 2007

promote shadow IT

Excerpt from book: Mashup Corporations: The End of Business as Usual: "Understand that you have capabilities outside your IT department, and use them! Shadow IT is not new and exists in every company. It’s been there, lurking just out of sight of your support teams, not necessarily hidden, but implemented by workers who need new tools, procedures, and workarounds that are not yet acknowledged by IT policies. They use their innovations every day to get their jobs and personal tasks done. With every class of graduating students, a more tech-literate labor force emerges. This labor force is creatively innovating both on and off the offi cial clock. They bring with them new methodologies and models for working that line up directly with service orientation.... Failure to embrace and support Shadow IT in the long run means wasted resources, an inability to maximize the value of your company’s collective candlepower, and lost opportunities."

November 24, 2007

gutter cleaning robot


Looj by iRobot . Little "robot" that cleans the gutters is really nice product. I showed the web-site to my friends, and they loved it too. If it priced like it's mentioned ($99), everybody will love to have it.
youtube video

November 18, 2007

bijelo-plavi.com

I created a website seven years ago with content about my favorite football club: NK Osijek. Few months ago it was transfered to new domain www.bijelo-plavi.com and new guestbook, forum and gallery was added with re-design of web-site. I hope, that it's an example how small contribution can make a difference. My half an hour or hour per week is generating a content which is viewed from a large number of club's fans.
Forum has already 100 members, and the daily number of visitors is constantly increasing.
The official web-site of NK Osijek is not well accepted by the fans, so my site has the reputation of the best NK Osijek web-site. Fans web-site is strictly related to fans, so my themes related to club's games, form, players and history are unique.

November 17, 2007

19.20.21

Web-site with presentation of today and future's supercities.
Very interesting is to see the biggest cities in history (1000,1500). I'm astonished that Vienna had the same population in 1900., like it has today. Also world population clock looks marvelous.
http://www.192021.org/

November 16, 2007

innovation incubator

Yahoo created an offsite incubator called Brickhouse infuse itself with startup energy,(BusinessWeek, Feb. 26). Its job is to shorten the time it takes to bring new ideas to market. "The goal is to take the idea, develop it, and make sure it's seen by senior management quickly. They need to iterate, see customer reactions, and launch fast.
How does the Brickhouse model work? Any of Yahoo's 13,000 employees can submit proposals for possible new products. Up to 200 ideas are submitted each month. A council of five top company executives, votes for only the best five to 10. Before Brickhouse began, there were far fewer suggestions and they tended to be brief one-liners. Now, employees post screenshots, create mock-ups, present cases, and describe potential hurdles.

programmer comic

November 15, 2007

don't fall in love with your idea

This is the topic which is important for all innovators. It's important not to fall in lova with your idea, because you wan't see the improvements which can be made to advance your innovation.
It's also important to sometimes let go your idea. Then you can go to the next idea without 'regrets' to an old one.

November 12, 2007

web 2.0

In 19th Century people had only books which was printed from small number of publishers. In 20th Century Radio and TV broadcasted content for masses. at the on of the century Web Pages entered into human lifes with it's content and with many web-masters among us.
In this Century Video has gone to Internet where everybody can be the author and the star of the day. Everything is shared and with Web collaboration, we are somehow again in the similar situation like in 19th Century concering the document sharing.
Of course, now the number opportunities are bigger and we can exchange thoughts and new ideas not only on forums or comment sites, but also on Blogs and Wikis. The Web 2.0 is providing every home with technology which is not needed to be bought or self-installed. At last this blog is also one product of it!

November 9, 2007

personal flag

What a great web site:
you can create your own flag with flags of the country of your origin and the one that affects you or you dream about going to.

November 8, 2007

water-ads

I like this product! Ads that clean streets
This is the text from: http://www.springwise.com/
The British company's Street Art service uses high-pressure cleaning machines to wash brands, logos and adverts onto dirty pavements. First, clients provide their design, and SAS turns it into a giant stencil. Then, working at night, the SAS team blasts the stencil with water and steam on dirty walls, roads, pavements or even road signs. The result is a sparkling clean image in the shape of the company's logo or message. Nothing but water and steam are used, and it's all perfectly environmentally friendly and legal, SAS stresses.

The idea for the service, which launched last year, came to founder Kristian Jeffrey out of sheer frustration. Jeffrey explains: "I run several small online businesses, and was searching for cost-effective advertising to attract consumers to my sites. My potential customers were walking around me every day, and it was when I was walking through the dirty streets of London that the idea came to me: why not take advertising literally to the street? Having experimented with several different methods, we wanted to apply a technique that was not just eye-catching and effective but also friendly to the environment. What could be more natural than water?"

November 4, 2007

catnapping

I can do it, but catching an hour or two of sleep sometimes can be very useful thing. It's surely refreshing and Margharet Thatcher, Winston Churchill were masters of catnap, as it's also Richard Branson - I took this from his book(Screw it, let's do it).

November 3, 2007

process innovation - zara

One example of process innovation is spanish fashion label Zara. They don't spend money on commercials, because they are spreading their 'brand' with verbal communication between customers and with their label on little bags.

Zara has the possibility to quickly respond on market demands, from their factory in La Coruna. They have innovative manufacturing proces, which allows them to be quick in responding to market demand and to send clothes which are selling good to their shops, and they also do some re-designing in that time. Only 15-25% of clothes are produced before the season and 50-60% in the start of the season. All other clothes is produced during the season according to customer wishes.

They are producing 12.000 different model of clothes per year, that's 4-6 more then competitors.

Design which has no good responce is withdrawn, and new design will be in shops in 3 weeks.

November 2, 2007

baby TV

If we had ask people 20 years ago, do they need cell phone, we will get an answer in most cases "Why would I need it?". If we had ask teenagers 20-30 years ago, do they need a music television, they wouldnt know the answer. The consumer don't know what they need, so MTV has become an icon for teenagers and the success of cellphone is well known.
One occasion, when I was feeling like a consumer is when I subscribed to IPTV only because of one channel which I couldn't receive via satelite dish or via terrestial TV. I think that I'm not the only one, who will say "Long live Baby TV!".
For all new parents, this TV channel is blessing which can keep babies interested in moments when Mum or Dad has something else to do. Every time when I see my son how is he watching Baby TV, I think about how good is this idea!
Simple cartoons with big, colourful images and songs for babies, which are adapted for babies keeps them interested, so you must get them out of watching it, if you want to stop it. There are no commercials and the programm is made in accordance with child phihologists so it stimulate baby for upgrowth and learning.

November 1, 2007

the business of innovation

The interesting show was broadcasted on CNBC half a year ago - www.innovation.cnbc.com, here is some interesting excerpts:

Companies that are successful innovators and which are able to sustain innovation over time are the ones that create a culture in which innovation can happen at any level at any time. They create a Culture of Innovation.

Paul Saffo of the Institute for the Future says managing innovation “…means cultivating an environment where lightning can strike twice.” So how does a company do this?

What these successful companies discover is that they need to embrace the act of attacking their cherished beliefs and traditional ways of doing things in order to take their products, services and customers to the next level. Saffo says, “Failure is the foundation of innovation”.

Roger Schank: (1)Innovators aren't just innovative about products. They're innovative about every aspect of their lives. They don't live their lives the way everyone else does.// And so, they don't honestly fit in very well.
(2)You know why people don't innovate? They're afraid of being told they're stupid. "You know, what a dumb idea that was." People hate that. So, they have to feel like they're in a comfortable environment to have an idea. And typically corporations are not environments for radical, game changing ideas.