Digitization of Everyday Things: Wells in Africa
An AP story from earlier this week highlights the work Scott Harrison and Charity Water is doing to to install sensors in wells in Africa so water flow can be monitored remotely. With declining sensor prices, expect to see more sensors deployed to monitor charitable work in hard-to-reach places.
How Companies like Groupon and Kickstarter are Shrinking Design Cycles and Improving Supply Chains
Companies like Groupon, Quirky, and Kickstarter are slowly starting to have an impact on design cycles and supply chain efficiency in very interesting (and unexpected) ways. Take Groupon for example. It is in over 500 markets in 44 countries. Earlier this year Groupon launched Groupon Goods. Established companies are now using Groupon Goods in a number of […]
Washington, DC Trip Report: W Hotel + Market Lunch at Eastern Market
I’m behind on dozens of trip reports and hoping I can use some of December to get caught up. In the last few months, I’ve been to Istanbul, Singapore, London, Stockholm, Tokyo, Taipei, Houston, Phoenix, and Minneapolis among other destinations . I’d planned to write a trip report for each, but have failed to make the time. In […]
Why I Still Use Foursquare
I was incredulous asked the other day why I still used Foursquare – as if it was some passing fade and I somehow missed the exit sign. In fact, I’ve remained a pretty religious user of Foursquare. According to Vizualistics I check-in about 70 times a month. While I do like seeing the service evolve, the primary reason […]
The Second Digital Decade’s Impact on Food Service
Today I had lunch with a friend whom I haven’t seen in several years. We met in a part of the city I rarely visit so I wasn’t familiar with the restaurants. Our phone conversation setting up our lunch plans went something like this: friend: “What are you in the mood for…” me: “I don’t know, […]
The Changing Flow of Story Telling: The Potentially Large Impact of the Second Screen
Today there is a tremendous amount of focus on the proverbial “second screen.” But today when most refer to the second screen they mean some screen adjacent (and subservient) to the television. I think this relationship is changing. As I’ve outlined in other places, ownership rates of connected devices has increased significantly in recent years. […]
The Innovator’s Dilemma in Entertainment
After releasing it’s first original series in February, NetFlix is planning to release at least five new original (and proprietary) programs in 2013. This shouldn’t be surprising for many reasons – namely NetFlix is simply following the path of it’s predecessors in the video distribution business. In this we also see that producing and distributing original content […]
Holiday 2012: Part XII – How Many Products were Promoted over the Weekend?
For my past holiday predictions and commentary see the following: Holiday 2012: Part I Holiday 2012: Part II Holiday 2012: Part III Holiday 2012: Part IV Holiday 2012: Part V Holiday 2012: Part VI Holiday 2012: Part VII Holiday 2012: Part VIII Holiday 2012: Part IX Holiday 2012: Part X Holiday 2012: Part XI – […]
Holiday 2012: Part XI – What One Can Learn From Promtional Email
For my earlier holiday expectations see the following posts: Holiday 2012: Part I Holiday 2012: Part II Holiday 2012: Part III Holiday 2012: Part IV Holiday 2012: Part V Holiday 2012: Part VI Holiday 2012: Part VII Holiday 2012: Part VIII Holiday 2012: Part IX Holiday 2012: Part X We’ve seen Black Friday evolve in […]
Initial thoughts on Black Friday
You can see my previous holiday expectations and analysis here: Holiday 2012: Part I Holiday 2012: Part II Holiday 2012: Part III Holiday 2012: Part IV Holiday 2012: Part V Holiday 2012: Part VI Holiday 2012: Part VII Holiday 2012: Part VIII Holiday 2012: Part IX Here are my initial thoughts on today’s (and really […]
