In a world where everyone is seeking smart people , experts and lists, the real lessons that one learns are in the nuggets of insight, encouragement or the tough questions that some people provide for no apparent benefit. These people may actually be outside your social circle or influence. Call them chance encounters or [...]

In the world that the leader of Faceborg lives in, he thinks of Faceborg as a country on the planet. His ambitions include making Faceborg the center of this planet or maybe replace the name of all people, countries and even the planet. Welcome he says because resistance is futile.

It is interesting that Faceborg thinks [...]

What happens when a service provider decides to change their business model? If you go back to the earliest days of the internet, Geocities, Hypermart and so on promised free sites. A lot of users went ahead and invested time and effort and then lost it all because the provider decided to either shut shop [...]

Its been 100 days since the N97 Mini and the Mac were first connected in our office. Here are a few steps that can be taken to make the co-existence better and productive.

Email
The office email account and a personal account were the first tasks on the phone. Nokia Messaging turned out to be a good [...]

David Rogers and Hemant Sachdev talking about the Future of Branding in India

This is a quick look at Digital Identity and Connections. Would like your views on this..

View this presentation in Slideshare

Tom Peters has been a huge influence , since the time i read The Pursuit of Wow and then ReImagine. I came across these points in a recent post of his and am looking forward to his new book, The Little Big Things.

Enthusiasm. (Be an irresistible force of nature!)
Energy. (Be fire! Light fires!)
Exuberance. [...]

David Kord Murray talks about thinking creatively

This blog is about Music. Till I write an introduction to this blog, please explore the 1001 Albums You Must Hear

These questions, will perhaps create the personal insights that matter to, guide us through our goals in 2010

What is the first insight you remember?

What is your best insight?

What made it great?

What was the problem that was solved?

Can you connect the dots that led to this insight?

What is your second best insight?

Again why? What [...]

1. There is always a new beginning.

“Every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end.”
Seneca

“When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us.”
Helen Keller

2. Just get started.

“A journey of a thousand miles must [...]

Over the course of the last few weeks, there have been many posts that have talked about 2010. Here are some thoughts that I found interesting. If you are aware of more, please do share some links too.

5 Non-Obvious Marketing Trends To Watch – Rohit Bhargava

The Importance Of When.
Rebirth Of Usability
Marketing With Customer Service
The Rise [...]

Via Redjotter

Does the service design community need to work with the open source community to provide an alternative to Facebook Connect ?

The background is the increasingly dominant role being played by a few companies in deciding on the issue of privacy of individual data. Frankly it does require an open movement to ensure there are enough [...]

What do we do when someone falls ill? I asked a few friends and it was no surprise when each one of them answered ‘ask a friend / family member’ about who to go to. The interesting bit that I want to draw your attention to is that no one said that they would call [...]

Venessa Miemis wrote an interesting and thought provoking post on the 3 Key Trends Shaping the Web and Society

Some points that came to mind on reading her post.

1. Social Networks and platforms and their requisite responsibility toward their participants. As these services move to becoming platforms, individual rights and protection will perhaps need greater definition.

2. [...]

There is a reason I do not add any Facebook Application.

The reason is simple, they take too much of user data and provide very little in return. The concern then extends to what these unknown service providers do with this data. The concerns may be valid or not but it does not help matters when [...]

A road that does not see regular maintenance or cleaning , will accumulate mud and dust on the edges which increase over time and thus reduce the space and maneuverability .

Is this an analogy for work, careers and our options perhaps ?

Plus there is an emphasis on specialisation which seeks to take us into the [...]

Do have a look at Maria Popova’s post as well.

It was good to get an invitation to listen to a few members of the Nokia Design team and understand their perspective on design, personalisation, iconography and most importantly gestures.

Nikki Barton, (Head of Digital Design), spoke about the overall design philosophy of Nokia.

Robert Williams (Design Manager), introduced the rationale behind the new icons on Nokia [...]

One visits a hospital or a medical facility because they are either unwell or someone they know is unwell. Each visitor has expectations with regard to recovery and also the hospital itself.

In discussions with visitors to a couple of hospitals, one tried to map these expectations as much as possible. But it is obvious that [...]

Daria’s thought provoking post on Capitalism, Collapse and Renaissance inspired this thought.

Some might call it a very harsh view but it seems companies had gotten used to words. Partnership and shareholders were mentioned often, but unlike songs words are simply not enough to do good. Unfortunately, companies have still not made the transition. These [...]

Social Marketing Compass

Trading personal information for personalized services

Know me, Nudge Me,

1. Pleasure in work
2. Intense focus on detail
3. Envelope Pushing
4. Experience vs Transaction
5. Easily bored
6. Inner directed

The business of creation. Its hard work.

It was interesting to read Future trends 2010 for UK but the talking points in India are likely to be substantially different, from this list, in 2010. A list that is likely to be collated soon.

In our context, some points that seemed interesting to deliberate on are listed here.

1. Food and Eating out – The [...]

Story Telling and Experience Themes

“This article is about a method drawn from storytelling that can help us build a better story about our product, unify teams, inspire design concepts and get us closer to evoking the pleasure, emotion and meaning of the experience we intend to deliver to users through the products and services [...]

“There is no practical obstacle whatever now to the creation of an efficient index to all human knowledge, ideas and achievements, to the creation, that is, of a complete planetary memory for all mankind…the whole human memory can be, and probably in a short time will be, made accessible to every individual. And what is [...]

Some observations on the Jet Pilots Strike post

1. The use of digital could have been better eg on company site, social sites etc and actually even on email and mobile to JP customers atleast.

2. The Book, Brands Under Fire , had detailed some thoughts about a brand in such a situation.. I had made [...]

“The next time you think about how and where your business value is coming from, you may like to consider how much potential there is in developing collaborations to focus on creative problem-solving, as much as the value that may come from doing more for with less. ”

New Standard for Indic Language SMS

The other element to consider is how such features can be used by people who cannot read or write. This is a thought building on the theme discussed in Indian Craft Persons and Mobiles

A discussion on Triiibes got me thinking about the Google Apps experience.

We have used Google Apps from its earliest days. The decision to move was borne out of the need to realign resources. There was a need to upgrade the hardware on which our mail server was running etc plus it was anticipated that there [...]

Using the Mobile to help in Agriculture, Language and more
,

Similar experiences from Brazil

Textile Industry and the Mobile

Notes on Nokia Life Tools

Ethical Angle in Marketing

As organisations seek to raise the responsibility standard, this will also have a part to play. Much like the debate on Safety on Indian Roads and the role that Automotive companies can play.

“The solution must not be paid from the existing income of the BoP customer, it must extend that income”

Given the challenges of Education and Healthcare, is it then possible to use the same principle to improve reach and quality of services?

Emotions and Usability

The subtle interplay between emotions, usability, and the factors common to good design
Eye Candy is a critical business requirement

Movements, not campaigns
Movements are about the passion and begin with the first conversation

Can Digital Social Experience be defined as

A cumulative of interactions while providing or receiving services in professional environments and also include connecting with family, friends and acquaintances in digital environments. And all of this is over a period of time multiple interactions and various digital platforms and devices

The outcomes of these digital social experiences [...]

The Attention Discussion

Seth Godin says “Big companies, non-profits and even candidates will discover hyperlocal, hyperspecialized, hyperrelevant…”

Michael Erad summarises ” So this is what it’s come to: when an attention gift economy seems more practical and sustainable than an exchange economy for information commodities, which is being rotted by the gift’s ugly negation: the free.” [...]