The mushrooms have landed
Originally uploaded by schickr.
Hugo, a lost cat!
Hugo, a lost cat!
Originally uploaded by schickr.
Our beloved cat, Rodo, is lost
Tired words: Innovation
Yes, I am a cranky bastard. And my prerogative is to get tired of hearing certain words said over and over again.
I’ve been keeping track for some time and have finally decided to make the list public. And, to be more transparent in my thinking, I have also tried to convey the ‘why’.
I’ll be posting these as they come (I have a list, so expect a bunch from the start). They’ll be listed under the ‘Tired‘ category, if you want to see any of the others.
Here’s my first one:
Innovation – My first word on this list, and the one that has bugged me the longest. Odd, coming from a person who just spent the last 3 years deep in the venturing arm of Nokia. I actually credit Carly Fiorina and a talk she gave a Nokia Mobility Conference a few years back when she mentioned ‘innovation’ so many times it started grating my ears.
Face it, innovation is one of those thing you can’t make true by repeating it. Like authentic brands (oh! two more candidates for this list) it is something that you or your company already have within you. As the Oracle would say, ‘It’s like falling in love – balls to bones, you know it.’
I found an interesting newsletter on emerging markets
From Nokia, no less. So, if you’re into emerging markets, go check it out.
Indeed, Nokia is doing a lot in emerging markets. India, China, and Brasil are the old stand-bys. But, Africa is not forgotten. I’ve been talking to a bunch of folks internally, and there are some really cool things already happening.
Yeah, Nokia hasn’t failed to notice that by the end of next year there will be around 3 BILLION subscribers, most of the growth in emerging markets.
Hm. Right now, everyone who can afford a mobile phone can get one. I think soon, everyone who wants a mobile phone will have one. That’s a whole different story.
Link: Nokia – Newsletter.
New Horizons is a quarterly newsletter targeted at anyone interested in new growth markets and reaching the next billion subscriber milestone.
This newsletter provides industry insights from different players, including operators, regulators and research companies. There are also case studies in new growth markets and information on the latest Nokia developments in this area.
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Plazes adding more variety
Plazes is a cool location service that cleverly is building a database of locations users go to, leveraging that info to make connections, and then some.
They started with a PC app for sniffing MAC addresses of routers.
Then they added a s60 app for smartphones to sniff cellIDs (I had a tiny role in that).
Now they are adding SMS (see note below).
I like the way they are doing things for at least 2 reasons:
1) They didn’t try to do everything possible in the first go. They started with the low-hanging fruit, go the service rolling, and are now adding new channels.
I call this ‘first go deep, then go wide’. We had a discussion about this at work, worried that ‘going wide’ – integrating and broadening the offering – would detract from ‘going deep’ – laser focus on making one thing the best damn thing. It’s a tough balance.
2) They are testing all sorts of channels. They started with an easy one, that wouldn’t disrupt one’s behaviour too much – a PC client, easy to work with. Then they upped it a bit – the mobile client needed to be put on the phone, there’s some behavioural change on the phone (really, how many times do you do something when changing cell towers?). Now they are asking the user to actively think about where they are, making them do the work (or at least that’s what I think the SMS channel will require).
I’ve asked to check it out. I haven’t been able to use the mobile version since I got my N93 (and now N73). This SMS version should work with any phone. I’d be interested in knowing what the usability will be like.
From the Plazes newsletter:
Good news for all Plazes users that like to use our service on the go,
but do not own a series 60 smartphone: The Plazes SMS gateway reached
alpha state! It enables the creation of Plazes, checkin / checkout to
Plazes and keeping track of your friends – all via SMS!
