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How Africa is Aiding Africa

Aug-30-11 By Aminda
Africa is quickly gaining a reputation as the land of opportunity, with the thriving technology hub of east Africa being compared to Silicon Valley. What is it that is fueling this transformation?
According to Jon Gosier, director of Ushahidi, the answer is Hunger. “It’s natural progression,” said Gosier. “In parts of the world that have essentially been discounted by everyone as sources for innovation, there will always be people who actively work against that mischaracterization. They’ve always been there, they’re just now getting recognized for the work they are doing, or the work they’ve enabled their children to do.” New technologies are aiding nations in overcoming the large hurdles they face in economic development.

What can Social Media do for You?

Aug-23-11 By Aminda
Yesterday’s post discussed the importance of customer engagement throughout the product development process, using Microsoft as an example. Social media is a valuable tool for engaging consumers in this type of project. Innovation consultant Stefan Lindegaard is a proponent of social media and features a great blog post outlining the various types of social media and how each can be used to further innovation efforts. He also posts links to a large number of additional resources on effective use of social media.

An Ecomagination Success Story

Aug-17-11 By Aminda
With the influx of innovation contests and popularity of crowdsourcing for the cheapest labor, it can be easy for creative minds to feel taken advantage of. On the other hand, innovators and start-ups struggle to get attention for their ideas and generate funding. Fortunately, there are success stories out there, such as the GE Ecomagination challenge.
This summer, GE and four partners announced plans to invest a total of $63 million USD in 10 cleantech companies developing energy-related concepts in solar, communications and software, and building efficiency. The funding goes to winners of the second phase of the Ecomagination challenge, which was focused on “Powering Your Home.”

The Forward-thinking Food Industry

Aug-16-11 By Aminda
An interesting new study from Antennae says the global food market boasts trends on the cusp of transformational global growth. This market is “evolving with imaginative product developments and new brands hitting retailers' shelves. These innovations, such as functional foods providing extra health benefits and edible coatings result in a greater variety of foods reaching consumers' shopping baskets.”  
Innovation in the food industry should not be any surprise with companies like General Mills and Campbell’s leading the way. Among General Mills’ initiatives is the posting of detailed technical briefs on the company’s G_WIN website. While the site has received a lot of attention, the company also runs an internal social networking-type site which allows staff to collaborate with each other, culminating in annual conferences where various business units come together in person to share ideas. They also create opportunities to generate ideas from and engage with suppliers, start-ups and entrepreneurs.

Improving the RPF Process

Aug-11-11 By Aminda
The Request for Proposal is a process usually associated with large, slow moving, traditional corporations and government agencies. The lengthy document contains all the detailed functional, technical and business requirements for large scale projects ranging from constructing a bridge to planning a capital campaign. Once the document is created the organization has to seek bidders, review bids and make a selection; altogether a 6- to 12-month process.

Multi-generational Teams Produce Innovation Results

Aug-09-11 By Aminda
An interesting article on CLOmedia.com analyzes the workplace relationship between Gen X (currently between about ages 30 and 45) and the younger Gen Y. The author asks whether these two generations can partner to make a significant impact on workplace technology and learning, or if the conflicting egos will lead to disparity?

Connecting With Consumers

Aug-05-11 By Aminda
A recent post profiled some unique new methods available to small businesses and other marketing professionals to gather professional advice and consumer intelligence, particularly related to pricing and spending. A second post on the topic seemed justified since there are so many other ways marketing departments are creatively working more efficiently and effectively utilizing technology.
The Eyes Have It
Companies for which click-through rates and other site visit data isn’t enough, now have another option for evaluating the effectiveness of their websites. A new service called You Eye uses webcams installed on testers’ computers to track eye movements as they navigate a site. Audio, screen, and mouse activity are also tracked during a user test to create a full profile of a tester’s interaction. The service is an appealing alternative to expensive traditional eye tracking research but has its limitations, as an article from Fast Company explains.

Crowdsourcing for the Children

Aug-01-11 By Aminda
The National Movement for America’s Children, an organization devoted to the well-being of children in the United States, recently launched a crowdsourcing campaign designed to achieve the ambitious goal of “developing and implementing a clear strategy and set of actions that provide for healthy child development for all children.” The hope is that this plan will reduce the likelihood of unhealthy childhood experiences and help address the $104 billion the country spends each year when failing to prevent child abuse and neglect.
The organization is calling for a multifaceted approach and a holistic national strategy, including policies and actions for government, businesses, communities, faith institutions and individuals - all of whom have a role to play in supporting healthy development for all children.

Enlisting the Crowd to Create Better Cities

Jul-28-11 By Aminda
Around the world, cities and communities of all sizes are developing innovative methods for generating economic advancement.
In the U.S. state of Maine, the nonprofit organization Island Institute has enlisted members to create the Island and Coastal Innovation Fund. The goal of the fund is to make loans that will jump-start or increase the capacity of island-based and remote coastal businesses, and take an equity position in transformative business models. The $2 million economic-development tool is a strategy for developing collaborative approaches to sustainable economic viability, helping island and coastal entrepreneurs obtain capital to start or expand their businesses

Are Computers Making Us More or Less Smart?

Jul-20-11 By Aminda
Computers have clearly changed how we work – information is so accessible it’s almost like an external memory source. We’re losing our need to rely on memorization of facts as simple as a phone number or as complex as a foreign language. Now, a new study has actually shown that memory actually is impacted when a person knows a piece of information is saved on a computer.
The good news is that it may demonstrate more a shift in how we remember rather than a negative impact on memory. For example, rather than remember a piece of information, we remember where the information is saved on the computer.
What was inconclusive, however, according to study authors, is the impact of these changing memory patterns. If you stop focusing on memorizing facts, will the brain better remember concepts?