All in Innovation
Pixar's Lessons for Project Communication & Collaboration
Increasingly I’m of the opinion that, while systems that add communication functionality to project tools can make great deal of sense in some circumstances, what’s more important is to enable staff and stakeholders to use the communication tools they’re comfortable with using.
How To Make Datathons and Hackathons Sustainable
What’s a “datathon”? Here’s one suggested definition from NYU’s Institute for Public Knowledge:
Who Buys Strategy Consulting These Days?
“It seems there are two extreme situations where people buy high-end analytical strategy work. At one end of the spectrum you have a company that’s doing well, has money to spend, and is in the enviable position where management can afford to “sit back” and contemplate what to do next. At the other end of the spectrum you have the company that’s not doing well, has cash flow problems, is having a tough time making payroll, but management realizes it really needs to do something different and wants to have an outsider look rationally at the problem of what to do next.”
Apple's September 10 Announcement -- So What?
It’s common on the social media aiwaves these days to hear Apple pegged as declining due to a “lack of innovation.” Let’s assume that’s true. The question can then be asked, “If that’s the case, what difference does it make and to whom?”
Have We Already Entered a "Post-Smartphone" Era?
In the world I live in there are still a lot of people who are satisfied with having “just a phone.” Still, what passes for “just a phone” these days is more powerful than the combined computing power devoted to the Manhattan Project, the Air Force/NASA X-15 program, and the early Space Shuttle Orbiter’s primitive onboard computers.
Transparency Is Not An End In Itself
While data generated by a government program should be readily available and shareable among its target constituencies and members of the public, I also believe that resources devoted to improving the transparency of a government program should also promote the accomplishment of that program’s goals.
Utilities and Cable Companies: What's a Monopoly To Do?
For me to bottom line is simple: government regulation, initially implemented to protect public interest, is now viewed by many as protecting special interests instead. This needs to change.
Who Knows What Google Should Do With Glass?
What if Glass is an expensive and embarrassing failure involved in some awful disastrous accident? Will Google’s Board demand a shake up in its upper management — or its business model that covers giving away services? I hope nothing like this happens because we all benefit from Google’s success.
I remember at first ignoring the Apple vs. Samsung patent arguments. I thought they were just more examples of highly-paid corporate attorneys fighting over questionable intellectual property claims.
Challenges in Turning Federal Digital Strategy into Mobile Reality
Directive number 7 in Federal CIO Steven VanRoekel’s May 23, 2012 federal API strategy Digital Government: Building a 21st Century Platform to Better Serve the American People states the following:
What Are YOU Trying to Do with Mobile Technologies in the Enterprise?
I’ve been thinking about mobile technologies a lot lately and how they relate to activities like project management and collaboration.
How Will Mobile Devices In the Workplace Make People More Productive?
In 2010 I posted Sometimes a phone is just a phone and a web site is just a web site. It discussed what I thought at the time was important in a smartphone, e.g., phone service, web access, email — the basics — and was based on recent Blackberry experience and anticipation of getting an iPhone.
Why Microsoft's "Surface" Tablet & Netbook Will Succeed
Why will Microsoft’s “Surface” tablet/netbook computer succeed, especially in large organizations and schools?
Collaboration Can Be Messy
Collaboration can be messy. Convincing a group of people to work together to accomplish a common objective, especially when the group contains many people that don’t know each other, requires artful leadership.
Let's Stop Talking about "Social Business"
Let’s stop talking about “social business” as if it were some sort of change in how organizations behave.
On the Need to Tolerate Communication Diversity
IBM’s Luis Suarez’ blog post Social Media at Work presents basic arguments for why organizations, not just individuals, need to adopt social media as a normal part of their communication infrastructure. He suggests that organizations need to adopt social media because their employees and their customers are using social media.
Here are five things that people introducing new technology to help collaboration should think about:
Google’s announcement of its Chromebook is more evidence of the shifting nature of technology-supported computing & communication ecosystems. It signifies more than just a continued “movement to the cloud.”
How to Participate in the National Academy of Engineering's "Changing the Conversation" Project
Recently I was honored to serve as a “digital strategy” consultant on the National Academy of Engineering’s Changing the Conversation project.