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Written on April 29, 2008 – 11:59 pm
Eric Bun, business innovation consultant
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Last weeks, multiple Dutch political parties debated about the potential of navigation devices in order to solve (or at least helping reduce) the traffic jams and congestion issues in the Netherlands. They argued about whether or not new generation of navigation devices should be able to reduce congestion problems and what kind of applications and functionalities would be required. In my opinion, it was a debate with a great value (though newspapers as well as bloggers don’t covered the debate!), both for society as manufacturers because it referred to a hot topic and the debate uncovered the urgency of navigation manufacturers to open up new markets and business models. The borderline: social computing (e.g. co-creation, crowdsourcing, mass participation or whatever buzzword you prefer) added to the next generation of navigation devices could help to inform and instruct drivers in a more adequate way resulting in a better transport flow and a better customer experience.
In this post, I would like to share some ideas regarding the next generation navigation devices and the relevancy and urgency for this mature market.
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Written on April 23, 2008 – 3:55 pm
Eric Bun, business innovation consultant
At present, more and more companies are trying to achieve an authentic customer experience. However, it seems that the term ‘customer experience’ is getting a rather consultancy and marketing selling point; only a few parties have a real understanding of what authentic customer experience means and succeed in building such experience. Customers are in contact via different channels and companies should therefore build an authentic cross-channel experience instead of merely focusing on the online WOW experience.
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Written on April 15, 2008 – 8:00 am
Eric Bun, business innovation consultant
Probably a lot of you guys went to The Next Web Conference. Though for those of you who didn’t, I’ve summed up the key arguments of the speakers in a two-minute a video. It gives a great overview of the speakers who attented there and shares some interesting insights. If you want to know more, browse to the live blog coverage of Anne and Ernst-Jan.
Unfortunately, it is only two minutes. So I’m afraid that you’ve to attend the full two days next year!
Written on March 26, 2008 – 12:00 pm
Eric Bun, business innovation consultant
Yesterday, a new political party ‘Proud of Holland’ launched its party manifesto in the Netherlands. Or to be precise, postponed to launch its party manifesto because it will develop an online platform where people are involved in writing a new party manifesto. Visitors of the - to be launched - website will be asked to vote on polls and to help define a new strategy on an online forum - a wiki-like format.
Co-creating a new political strategy
Sounds as a good initiative, doesn’t it? Take the pulse of the rank and file of the party and ask the people what they actually want and how they think about particular topics. Certainly if you consider the rise of utilizing the wisdom of the crowd. Co-creating a new political strategy together with the people whom are - in fact - affected by the outcomes of that co-created strategy. However, I have my doubts for a number of reasons.
- DIGITAL DIVERSITY | There is still is digital diversity nowadays and therefore you might be asking whether or not the party’s program will reflect the opinion of the complete grassroots support.
- CHANGING THE STRATEGY | The political leader don’t want to elaborate on what she will do when the outcomes of the co-created strategy are not in line with her own vision. In other words, will she adapt her own vision or will she change the outcomes of the strategy defined by the wiki in the case they are not in line?
- LIFE HACKING?! | Online polls and wiki’s are sensible for fraud and underlying software can easily be hacked by people that want to affect the strategy. The process of defining a strategy is therefore not transparent.
- COMPLEXITY | In the science of public, there is a continuous discussion whether or not people are able to take decisions on political issues. Politics is continuous balancing the pros and cons for the whole society. It is not about defining the most promising and optimum strategy and solutions are an outcome of a political process. Besides, political leaders are paid to do their job, to make that though decisions and as a society you vote on a specific party because you believe in their vision and you think that party is capable of making the decisions which affect your life and the life of your children.
So, I have my doubts about the practicability of a wiki-like format to define new political strategies. We vote on political leaders because we think he or she is able to make the tough decisions with respect to the rank and file of the party and you don’t want to be bothered again and again on particular issues.
Written on March 20, 2008 – 11:50 am
Eric Bun, business innovation consultant
Recently, I wrote an extensive post on how several companies are trying to utilize community knowledge in order to come up with more innovative products and services. In that article I discussed BrightIdea as a idea generation platform and elaborated on the pros and cons.
In these UtWotC series I would like to discuss another similar service with you named Kluster. Although the idea behind the two platforms is similar, the platform is not. Kluster distuiguishes itself by providing a universal platform for the generation of different ideas and project.
First, what is Kluster.
So, actually, Kluster provides a social platform which can be used for different purposes and projects, for different partners, and with different communities. Kluster incorporated incentives (both material and nonmaterial) which encourage communities to participate. Communities are set up around specific topics and as a participant you can decide to which project you contribute yourself.
In my opinion, Kluster has big pros:
- Big platform with different projects; Kluster attracts more communities than a platform which is build for the involvement of a single community
- The incentives system is great and powered by advanced algorithms
- It is a unique platform with it’s own currency (the Watt), own jargon (Sparks: proposed solutions to a phase, Amps: Amps allow participants to collaborate by proposing enhancements or refinements & Watts: Watts are supports for sparks)
- Advanced decision making tool; Kluster also incorporates a unique decision making tool which support companies to buy projects or ideas.
- The engagement of parties make it possible to fund ideas when they are selected
So, Kluster is a great platform which already has proved its success though I have some doubts about the universal approach of the platform. In other words, is it really possible to develop and use a universal platform that is fun, tempting and unique for your particular customers’ community?
Written on March 17, 2008 – 12:50 pm
Eric Bun, business innovation consultant
At the moment I’m reading Brand Hijack, a book by Alex Wipperfurth that discusses marketing in a revolutionary way. Instead of just writing a review, I decided to make a movie about this book. Here’s the teaser, more to come!
Written on March 14, 2008 – 9:48 am
Eric Bun, business innovation consultant
I have to admit to I am not quickly impressed by new web 2.0 initiatives. In fact, the scattered rise of new blogging, social & business communities and other web 2.0 made me really lost the count and to be honest, it doesn’t matter for me. Why? Because a mere handful of the initiatives are able to do the ‘thing’ that make them The Next Big Thing and make them survive, let even alone generate revenue streams on the long run.
Today, I coincidentally discovered a new service named Sprout. Sprout is a service which has – in my opinion – the characteristics to make it a success. It is easy, build on community efforts, easy to share and has incentives to promote.
First of all, what is Sprout?
‘…interactive and portable chunks of web content. Some people call them widgets, mashups or mini-sites but we just call them sprouts’
In other words. Sprouts can be used to make mini-websites within your blog, personal site, news site etc. The Sprout below elaborates on the wide range functionalities and potential purposes. See an example here.
As I already said, Sprout has the potential to become a new way of interactive sharing across the web. The table below specifies the differentiating functionalities of Sprout, YouTube and SlideShare briefly.
Especially the interaction of the web chucks is that what make them distinguishing. Youtube and Slideshare have already major communities involved and Sprout integrate the functionalities of these two and adds interactivity in order to gather new communities. Therefore, I’m curious about the expected usage of Sprout in the near future, I’m already convinced of its potential!
Written on March 6, 2008 – 12:01 am
Eric Bun, business innovation consultant
I guess you all might be familiar with the book of James Surowiecki ‘The Wisdom of Crowds – Why the many are smarter than the few and how collective wisdom shapes business, economies, societies and nations’. The book elaborates on the value of, and how to utilize the knowledge within communities to foster knowledge, ideas, initiatives and innovation. It starts with a nice example of a lost submarine in the Atlantic Ocean which is found back after all those concerned are asked to bring ideas on the supposed location.
Gradually, more and more organizations are utilizing the wisdom of the crowds and also consultancy and software firms are cleverly seizing up on that development. This week I coincidentally came in contact with people of BrightIdea.com. A company that offers idea management tools to be implemented on corporate websites in order to encourage community members to came up with new inspiring ideas. Although I really believe in social innovation and co-creating with your customer, I think that any idea management tool won’t deliver the continuous adequate innovation process which are companies looking for nowadays. (more…)
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The Next Web Blog is closely associated with The Next Web Conference which is held annually in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. At this event speakers from all over the world come together to talk about, and show of, the future of the Web. (
