Innovation/Strategy/The Narrative

Shozu, and being done when there’s nothing left to remove

Posted on by charlie

More from my long notes tail.

For a while I wanted to write a long article on Cognima.

Who?

The guys who brought us Shozu, that’s who.

Cognima had a really complex, operator-focused image posting solution that really never went anywhere (as far as I know).

WIth Shozu, they cut away all that extra, whittling down to the main feature that folks wanted. That’s why their service is so robust and smooth – it’s backed up with years of experience and a strong platform.

Now, they can slowly add features as they need them, since they likely have a whole tool-chest of dropped features from the original system. And, if you’ve noticed, they don’t rock the boat that often, having added only a few extensions since their ‘launch’.

Interesting position to be in. Just thought I’d point it out. If you want a longer article, feel free to add below.

On another note, they used to distribute some cool CDs called ‘Music to Replicate Data By’. Great idea.

The Narrative

A Mobile Lifestyle Manifesto – help add to it

Posted on by charlie

One other note I want to clear out is a Mobile Lifestyle Manifesto I fancied writing. I kinda never finished it, though its been kicking around for a very long time.

So I thought in true Lazy Web style, I’d ask folks to add to it or point to similar ones so that we can create one that we all want to believe in.

Mobile Lifestyle Manifesto

  • We are 3 billion strong, respect us – you serve us, you help us.
  • We are not consumers, but active participants in our lives.
  • We want to actively connect and communicate with others, not passively receive.
  • Content is not the end point, but also the start and the middle, too – a catalyst for conversation.
  • Don’t let technology interfere, we want to do things that just work, not fiddle, even if we know what we need to fiddle with.
  • Keep us happy, or we will look for happiness elsewhere.
  • My life is hyperconnected – a lot of stuff coming in and a lot going out. I have no problem with this, so don’t mess my flow, but be a part of it.
  • Keep everything I do smooth, easy, beautiful, and simple.
  • Show me the seams: Don’t obscure things either by making them too complex or too simple.
  • Help me when I’m mobile. Help me when I’m not. Give me the right metaphors for the right moments – don’t mix them up.

Please feel free to add to this.

Uncategorized

links for 2007-05-08

Posted on by charlie
Strategy/The Narrative

‘Operators are not enemies. They are irrelevant.’

Posted on by charlie

I was going through my old notes and stumbled upon a comment from a really clever guy from a UK analyst house (who shall remain anonymous).

He had given an amazing talk about all the new stuff happening on the Internet and its impact on traditional telecom and such. He was pretty harsh on operators, so I wanted to test an idea of mine, that I thought was clever – that we need to help operators understand the potential of the Internet, how they need to find value in other layers of the business, and so on.

Doug then looked at me and told me I was way wrong, that (I don’t remember the exact quote), ‘Operators are not enemies, that gives them too much credit. They are merely irrelevant. They are just utilities. Irrelevant. Buggy whips.’

Huh.

Made me stop an think.

Do you have similar characterizations?