Video: ThinkBalm analyst Sam Driver’s guest appearance on Metanomics

by Erica Driver and Sam Driver.

On February 3, 2010, Sam Driver was a guest on the Metanomics show, hosted by Robert Bloomfield. Sam was invited onto the show to discuss social networking, immersive media and the importance of community in a digital world. A large focus of the interview was on the research reports ThinkBalm publishes — in particular our most recent report, The Enterprise Immersive Software Decision-Making Guide. Sam also discussed the ThinkBalm Innovation Community, which has a mission of advancing adoption of work-related use of the Immersive Internet — virtual worlds and campuses, virtual event platforms, immersive learning environments, and 3D collaboration tools. The ThinkBalm Innovation Community, which now has nearly 420 members, has evolved into a mix between a social network, collaborative laboratory and guild.

Here’s the video recording of Sam’s interview.

© 2010 ThinkBalm. All rights reserved.

Images from ThinkBalm Innovation Community’s un-lecture no. 6

by Erica Driver.

On January, 29, 2010 we held a ThinkBalm Innovation Community event titled ”Un-Lecture no. 6.” An un-lecture is an event during which four ThinkBalm Innovation Community members deliver 10-minute presentations about an Immersive Internet project on which they have been working. These events are a terrific way for enterprise immersive software early adopters to learn about possibilities and good practices, and to network. For more insight into the un-lecture format, see the January 14, 2009 ThinkBalm Storytelling Series report, End Death-by-Lecture: Tours, Not Speeches.

We held Un-Lecture no. 6 in ThinkBalm’s Avaya web.alive environment, at thinkbalm.projectchainsaw.com. Our presenters were:

• Joe Rigby, market manager, MellaniuM Inc. While this un-lecture utilized just the basic meeting functionality of Avaya web.alive, the technology can be used to create graphically rich scenes and environments. Joe Rigby showed examples his organization has built, leveraging content created outside web.alive, and shared insights into what was involved.
• Ariella Furman, CEO and machinimatographer, ALM Productions. Ariella is starting to see corporate clients using machinima as an alternative to traditional film production. She took us through the steps of creating corporate movies in a virtual world, highlighting the ways machinima allows film makers to do things they can’t do in the physical world — like imitate complicated camera moves and create visual effects. Here is a link to a commercial ALM Productions created for There.com and here is a link to a short movie for IBM.
• Ann Cudworth, production designer and virtual world creator, CBS Television and principal and lead designer with VSETS. Ann shared her career experiences transitioning from traditional set design to virtual set design. You can see examples of her work at Alchemy Sims in Second Life.
• John Kinsella, VP with PADI (Professional Association of Diving Instructors). John is a vice president at PADI, where he is responsible for – among other things – Dive World, which is PADI’s Immersive Internet presence in Second Life. John told us about his current project, which ties Dive World to scuba diver education (PADI’s core mission). PADI has created an accurate and realistic simulation of a scuba diving decompression computer. Participants can use it to learn what to expect on an actual scuba dive. Here is a link to a video about this new PADI project.

To attend future ThinkBalm Innovation Community events, please join our group on LinkedIn.

Thanks to Chris Hardy of Avaya for these snapshots.

© 2010 ThinkBalm. All rights reserved.

Highlights from “Learning in 3D” book: steps to successful adoption

by Erica Driver and Sam Driver.

Karl Kapp, professor and consultant at Bloomsburg University, and Tony O’Driscoll, professor of the practice at Duke University, have a new book out titled Learning in 3D: Adding a New Dimension to Enterprise Learning and Collaboration. ThinkBalm contributed an essay to Chapter 8, which is all about steps to successful enterprise adoption. We’d like to call out and comment on a few points from this chapter.

First: mainstream adoption is not a matter of if, but when. Kapp and O’Driscoll write, “There was a time when computers themselves were thought of as toys or novelties; now these devices are indispensable business and education tools. There was a time when the Internet was not a part of our daily lives. It’s hard to reach back and remember the time before these technologies became ubiquitous — when the same type of implementation and adoption concerns existed for those technologies [as for the Immersive Internet].” ThinkBalm’s prediction is that in three years’ time, adoption of immersive software in the workplace will have reached the early majority adoption phase. (See the November, 2008 ThinkBalm report, The Immersive Internet: Make Tactical Moves Today for Strategic Advantage Tomorrow). To be sure, the path to mainstream adoption is marked by barriers — but early adopters are finding springboards for overcoming hurdles. (See the September, 2009 ThinkBalm report, Crossing the Chasm, One Implementation at a Time.)

Second, Kapp and O’Driscoll offer great advice to early adopters in this chapter and we’d like to call out a couple of highlights:

• Focus on compatibility with existing technology and modes of work. In a discussion about how to make immersive technologies attractive to target stakeholders and users, Kapp and O’Driscoll say, “Positioning virtual immersive environments as a natural extension and convergence of existing technologies such as synchronous learning tools, video games, Web 2.0, and social networking — and not as a science-fiction-dream-come-to-life will go a long way toward the concept of compatibility.” Think of immersive software for meetings or learning and training as expansions of the worker’s toolkit. Immersive software will extend the reach of current investments with new features and functionality. One of the ways this will occur is through integration with existing communication and collaboration tools. (See the January 6, 2010 ThinkBalm blog post, “Immersive software for meetings will expand the information worker toolkit.”)
• Choose the right group of people to participate in a pilot. An immersive software pilot project is a test run during which people conduct real business activities in the environment and report feedback about their experiences to the project team. Kapp and O’Driscoll offer good advice about how to assemble the right pilot group. They recommend choosing a relatively small group; creating a mix of people who are comfortable with technology and those who are less comfortable; involving people from IT as well as legal and regulatory departments from the beginning; selecting people who are interested in the potential of virtual worlds; and focusing on people who will be willing to share their feedback with the project team.

This blog post is part of the Learning in 3D blog book tour. Book publisher Wiley is offering a 20% discount to blog book tour attendees. To buy the book and get your discount, click here and enter the code L3D1.

© 2010 ThinkBalm. All rights reserved.

Enterprise immersive software trends for 2010

by Erica Driver and Sam Driver.

Enterprise immersive software is a collection of collaboration, communication, and productivity tools unified via a 3D or pseudo-3D visual environment. In this computer-generated environment, one or more people can engage in work activities such as training, rehearsing business activities, delivering or attending presentations, collaborating on documents, brainstorming, visualizing data, building or testing prototypes, and attending conferences and trade shows. The software provides a shared, interactive, multichannel experience through presence awareness, voice chat, active speaker indication, text chat, and many other features, often including avatars. The software can be installed behind the firewall, delivered on a hardware appliance, or accessed via a software as a service (SaaS) offering.

The term “enterprise” in the category name indicates that solutions are suitable for use in the workplace, as opposed to recreational use (e.g., consumer video games and recreational virtual worlds), and are scalable, secure, and stable enough for at least some work-related use cases. Because the enterprise immersive software market grew out of four distinct ancestral origins (virtual worlds, serious games, business applications, and learning simulations), the software products in the category vary widely in features and functionality.

ThinkBalm’s predictions for 2010:

1. The market will remain in the early adopter phase. The enterprise immersive software market has passed through the innovator phase, when nearly everyone who was experimenting with the technology was a technologist or virtual world enthusiast. In contrast, the bulk of the attention today is from early-adopter business people in functions like sales and marketing, human resources, and learning and training, as well as IT. We expect the market to remain in this phase until approximately 2013, when it will transition to the early majority adoption phase. This transition and timing assumes the industry is successfully able to “cross the chasm,” in Geoffrey Moore’s parlance.[1]
2. Cash will be king. Enterprise immersive software vendors made significant strides in 2009 in features and functionality, scalability, and stability of their offerings. New and updated products emerged every quarter. While vendors will continue to improve their offerings in 2010, a focus on financing may curb the pace of change temporarily. Many of the vendors in this small, volatile market are actively seeking outside funding. Not all will receive the investment they require to reach their target customers or even continue operations. Executives will be out on the road, raising money and trying to encourage customers to move pilots to paid-for production deployments.
3. The year will be marked by churn. We expect 2010 to be a busy year, with new entrants, mergers, acquisitions, and even some business closures. Most of the enterprise immersive software vendors are small. Avaya, IBM, and Sun Microsystems are larger players, but their immersive software project teams are no bigger than those of the small vendors in this space. In 2010, new vendors will enter the market and some vendors that are undercapitalized will exit, often through acquisition. Product life-cycle management (PLM) vendors are keeping an eye on this emerging market as a natural extension of computer-aided design and prototyping. Unified communications (UC) vendors are also keeping an eye on — or getting involved in, in the case of Avaya — the market. For UC vendors, immersive software could be a new way to deliver unification of services.
4. Implementations will break out of the experiment-and-pilot ghetto. In April of 2009, we conducted a small survey of Immersive Internet advocates and implementers and found that about 2/3 of projects in 2008 and the first quarter of 2009 were what we call pre-production: early experiments or pilots.[2] In the same survey, nearly 75% of respondents (47 of 64) said their organizations either might or will increase their investment in immersive technologies in 2009 and 2010. In 2010, we expect to see more large-scale production deployments follow on the heels of 2009’s trend setters. In September of 2009, Cisco Systems held its annual sales kickoff meeting online using a virtual event platform, with 19,000 attendees.[3] IBM’s CIO office has a vision of deploying immersive technology to the entire workforce — that’s nearly 400,000 people. And BP extended its 2009 Game Changer program, which has been focused on the Immersive Internet, for an additional six months because the company was seeing so much value from it.
5. A wave of products will move from alpha and beta into general release. While some vendors could emulate Google and offer beta products in perpetuity, most of the vendors that have early-stage products will take a more traditional route and move their enterprise immersive software products from alpha or beta into production this year. In 2010, we expect to see generally-available (GA) products released by A World for Us, Amphisocial, Avaya (assuming the company moves forward with web.alive, which it has acquired with Nortel), Linden Lab (Second Life Enterprise), VastPark, and VenueGen. We may also see a GA release of Meeting Labs, if Forterra Systems moves forward with this new hosted offering.
6. Customers will demand more integration with existing systems. Some of the vendors already provide interfaces to various back-end business systems. Several vendors provide lightweight directory access protocol (LDAP) integration: Altadyn, Avaya, IBM, Forterra, Linden Lab (with Second Life Enterprise), ReactionGrid (with Harmony), Sun Microsystems, and Virtual Italian Parks. ProtonMedia and Teleplace also integrate specifically with Microsoft Active Directory. Another common integration point is office productivity software. A World for Us, Amphisocial, Avaya, Forterra Systems, ProtonMedia, Rivers Run Red, and Teleplace allow users to upload or drag and drop Microsoft Office, OpenOffice.org, Google documents and spreadsheets, or other types of files into the environment. American Research Institute (ARI), Forterra Systems, and ProtonMedia commonly integrate with their customers’ learning management systems. Amphisocial, InXpo, ON24, Unisfair, and VastPark provide integration with external social networking tools, like LinkedIn and Twitter.
7. The base feature set for the most common use cases will begin to standardize. Because the enterprise immersive software market grew out of multiple distinct ancestral origins, the software products in the category vary widely in features and functionality.[4] Despite this, we are starting to see a standard feature set emerge for small, presentation-style meetings, which is the simplest use case. All of the products that address this use case provide meeting spaces, local text chat, and either file sharing or screen sharing. Most also provide 3D meeting spaces, 3D avatars, and local voice chat. In 2010 and beyond, vendors will coalesce around a richer set of features for this use case and fairly standard sets of core capabilities for other use cases, primarily small, collaborative meetings, large meetings and conferences, and some forms of learning and training.
8. Pricing models will go through a transformation. To date, most immersive software deployments are pilots – not large-scale production deployments. Most customers are not yet making large, strategic investments. As a result, vendors have not yet received much feedback from the market about pricing, and lots of experimentation is under way. Some products are open source and therefore free, if you don’t include the cost of building applications and supporting the environment. Some vendors charge based on number of concurrent or named users, while others charge per user, per hour. Some charge per month, others per year, still others per virtual event. Some charge a traditional up-front license fee plus an annual software maintenance fee. As the market evolves, pricing strategies will also evolve to align more closely with customers’ expectations of enterprise software, whether it is installed on-premise or delivered via a hosted service.
9. Early attempts at mobile device support will focus on a subset of features. With a few exceptions, enterprise immersive software products do little to support mobile users. A few vendors (like ARI, Forterra Systems, and Sun Microsystems) provide telephony integration so mobile users can join immersive meetings and training sessions via voice. Several third-party vendors have created iPhone apps (e.g., Sparkle IM and Touch Life) that are slimmed-down Second Life clients. VastPark is working on apps for the iPhone and Android. Other vendors are likely to provide mobile device support for their products, as well. The mobile applications will not likely have all the same functionality as the full apps, but at minimum will provide presence information text chat, and voice chat. With the rise in the tablet computer format in 2010, which will have a larger display than mobile phones and will have built-in support for broadband Internet and Wi-Fi, we expect to see some exploration into this new hardware category, as well.
10. New alliances will form, creating new value. We hope this is more than wishful thinking on our part. But wouldn’t it be nice if . . . enterprise immersive software vendors partnered up with unified communications vendors and virtual event platform vendors? We see many crossovers already between enterprise immersive software and unified communications. (See the January 6, 2010 ThinkBalm article, “Immersive software for meetings will expand the information worker toolkit.”) Imagine an immersion layer that presents a simple, natural user interface that truly unifies communication and collaboration among information workers. Also imagine alliances between vendors that offer 3D environments and those that offer pseudo-3D environments for large-scale events (e.g., InXpo, ON24, and Unisfair). You’d be able to augment the unfettered access provided by pseudo-3D environments for large-scale events with the collaborative power of 3D for smaller breakouts and training sessions.

© 2010 ThinkBalm. All rights reserved.

---

[1] For the enterprise immersive software market to successfully cross from the early adopter phase to early majority, technology providers will have to address a number of issues. For more information see the May 26, 2009 ThinkBalm report, ThinkBalm Enterprise Immersive Internet Business Value Study, Q2 2009 and the September 23, 2009 ThinkBalm report, Crossing the Chasm, One Implementation at a Time.

[2] About a quarter of respondents (17 of 66) said their projects were production rollouts to the entire targeted population and 6% (4 of 66) said theirs were enterprisewide rollouts to many, if not all employees in the organization. See the May 26, 2009 ThinkBalm report, ThinkBalm Immersive Internet Business Value Study, Q2 2009.

[3] Cisco’s Global Sales Experience (GSX) event consisted of 88 hours of consecutive sessions across 24 time zones. The event resulted in 90% cost savings compared to holding a physical event. See the September 30, 2009 VirtualEdge.org article, “At 19,000, Cisco sets the new bar for business critical meetings and events.”

[4] The enterprise immersive software market has emerged out of five other categories: virtual worlds, serious games, business applications, virtual event platforms, and learning simulations. For more information see the November 17, 2008 ThinkBalm report, The Immersive Internet: Make Tactical Moves Today for Strategic Advantage Tomorrow.

Immersive software for meetings will expand the information worker toolkit

by Sam Driver.

Immersive software can deliver a similar level of engagement as a physical meeting or high-end telepresence session, without the requirement to travel. Enterprise immersive software vendors have suffered something of a catch-22 as they built products that show off the potential of immersive technology. They added tightly integrated communication and collaboration features, even though these features are redundant with existing information worker infrastructure. Immersive software features that are also part of more established information worker software include voice services, messaging (real-time and asynchronous), presence awareness, team workspaces, video streaming and sharing, and document and screen sharing. As more organizations adopt immersive software, the time will come to tackle one of the second-stage barriers we’ve discussed before: integrating these new capabilities into their existing software investments? We anticipate that integration will be a major focus of early adopters in 2010.

Immersive software for meetings will:

• Extend the reach of existing investments with new features and functionality. It is helpful to think about immersive technology as the front end of the wave of communications and collaboration tools, with an emphasis on engagement (see figure). Immersive software provides features other forms of information worker software don’t — like a 3D interface (in most cases), avatars (in most cases), unification of collaboration and communication services, more sophisticated non-verbal communication (e.g., gestures and animations), and a strong sense of presence. Immersive technology isn’t about replacement, but expanding and extending the toolkit. Immersive Internet advocates should try to position their investments in immersive software for meetings within the broader information worker infrastructure context.

• Integrate with existing communication and collaboration tools. We are starting to see vendors design or add function to their products to achieve integration with existing systems. For example: Amphisocial has built direct integration with Google Docs and Spreadsheets. ProtonMedia has integrated with Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007. Teleplace provides drag-and-drop integration with OpenOffice.org documents (and can provide this for Microsoft Office documents as well). Several vendors (ARI, Forterra, and Sun Microsystems) provide the ability to call a telephone from within the environment. Sun and VastPark provide a session initiation protocol (SIP) interface.

Recommendations

Think strategically about immersive software, focusing on filling in gaps and extending existing capabilities. Build a program that:

• Doesn’t try to force everything into an immersive environment just because it’s “cool.”
• Choose the right tool for the task at hand
• Look for ways to integrate immersive software with existing tools and technologies, thereby enabling people to interact regardless of which tools they have at hand
• Utilize existing tools that work well for 2D data analysis, asynchronous communication and quick voice chats
• Find new, engaging ways to fill the gap left by travel bans, connect remote workers, or start to work in novel ways, doing things you simply weren’t able to do any other way.

© 2010 ThinkBalm. All rights reserved.

Forterra Systems layoffs have implications for the enterprise immersive software market

by Erica Driver.

Today I spoke with Robert Gehorsam, president of Forterra Systems, about changes taking place at the company. In light of what Gehorsam termed challenging economic times, the company has laid off nearly 50% of its workforce (not quite the 60% I had posted in my December 18^th tweet) since November 20^th, when Forterra briefed ThinkBalm for our upcoming report The Enterprise Immersive Software Decision-Making Guide. Many of the layoffs took place last week. Forterra now has 20 employees, which includes most of the core engineering team and others focused on delivering billable work to government and corporate customers.

Gehorsam said that the company plans to continue operations, fulfill its contracts, and meet its obligations. He would not confirm or deny that the company’s remaining assets were being prepared for sale. He did say this: “We are always looking for ways to accelerate growth and adoption of virtual world platforms in organizations. We will look at ways to do that the best. We haven’t decided anything. It might be acquisition, further partnerships, further investment from investors, or organic growth over time.”

My take and recommendations

• Forterra’s position in the enterprise immersive software market has softened. Among those let go last week was Chris Badger, VP of marketing. Others who were in commercial sales and core R&D were also laid off. Without resources focused on selling and marketing OLIVE and Meeting Labs, Forterra will have difficulty maintaining its position in the emerging enterprise immersive software market. My take: in 2010, Forterra Systems’ revenue split will be weighted heavily toward professional services, with a smaller percentage coming from software license, subscription, and maintenance fees.
• Forterra Systems is a prime acquisition target. Likely acquirers include defense contractors and consulting companies that serve the government sector, given Forterra’s strengths and history. We’ve already seen acquisitions like this occur. Lockheed Martin acquired 3DSolve (3D Learning Solutions) and Applied Research Associates acquired Virtual Heroes. Given this possibility, project teams evaluating immersive software for use in non-government and non-defense related organizations should approach Forterra with caution. Current Forterra customers on the commercial side should meet with Forterra’s executive leadership team to discuss the implications of recent changes and the company’s future direction. Current enterprise customers should put a contingency plan in place in case Forterra is acquired by a company that plans to take OLIVE in a new direction.
• Expect more market churn in 2010. Many enterprise immersive software vendors are actively seeking outside funding. Not all of them will receive the investment they require to reach potential customers in this small, crowded market — or even to continue operations. We expect 2010 to be a busy year, with mergers, acquisitions, and even some business closures. This will be accompanied by new entrants getting in on the game. Within just the last few weeks we encountered new players Amphisocial and A World for Us (Assemb’Live). Organizations seriously evaluating enterprise immersive software can mitigate risk by speaking with reference customers (this is a must), using open source software (which doesn’t leave the custom dependent on any one vendor), escrowing the source code of products they license, or even making a financial investment in the company whose software they license.

© 2009 ThinkBalm. All rights reserved.

When is Second Life Enterprise beta right for you?

by Erica Driver and Sam Driver.

[Edited Monday, November 9th, 2009 for content -- correction and clarification of pricing model and definition of Web-based solutions]

On November 4th, Linden Lab announced that its behind-the-firewall immersive platform, Second Life Enterprise, is now in open beta. Think of SL Enterprise (formerly code-named “Nebraska”) as a micro-Second Life — except it runs on a hardware appliance that resides inside your organization’s data center, is integrated with your enterprise directory, and has been designed to be used for work. The beta version features a Web-based administration interface, professional-looking avatars, various meeting and collaboration spaces, and a couple of basic collaboration tools. Linden Lab also announced that in the first half of 2010 a Second Life Work Marketplace will become available, where customers can buy third-party tools, applications, and content to use with SL Enterprise. Fourteen organizations are currently participating in the SL Enterprise beta program including IBM, Northrop Grumman, Naval Undersea Warfare Center, and Case Western Reserve University. 

ThinkBalm recommendations

We’re chin-deep in market analysis and vendor recommendations for client projects and a report we’re working on due out later in the year, tentatively titled, “The Enterprise Immersive Technology Decision-Making Guide.” In light of the fact that prospective SL Enterprise customers have nearly two dozen alternatives they could choose from (see a partial list here), here are some recommendations to put the SL Enterprise announcement in context: 

Q: When should SL Enterprise be on my product short list?

A: The more of the following are true, the more likely it is that we’d recommend SL Enterprise to be on your shortlist. Your organization requires:

• The ability to create and modify, at reasonable cost, custom immersive experiences like learning simulations, team-building scenarios, games, data visualization, and process design
• The ability to create from scratch, and possibly animate, virtual replicas of your organization’s buildings, products, or other assets for acculturation, training, or prototyping purposes — without a seven-figure budget and legions of consultants
• A solution that enables you to leverage existing Second Life building and scripting skills, and existing Second Life digital assets your organization already owns
• The ability to hold company events during which 300-400 avatars can be in the same virtual space at the same time (such as for a keynote address)
• Built-in, spatialized voice over IP
• Built-in social networking (the ability to “friend” people, peruse users’ profiles, create groups, etc.)
• Privacy for all content, data, and communication taking place in the immersive environment
• Integration with the enterprise directory for access control and identity management
• Access to a wide range of third-party content, tools, and applications (eventually, as the Second Life Work Marketplace launches and gains momentum).

And you have $55,000 to spend one time front on the appliance and software license for 100 avatars,  on the license fee every year, just to keep the appliance up and running, plus an annual recurring fee based on the number of users licensed (starting at $175/user with discounts based on volume), plus a per-user cost once you have more than 100 named users, plus any third-party applications or content and third-party custom development costs. 

Q: In what circumstances might an alternative product be more suitable?

A: The more of the following are true, the higher the chances that an alternative offering might be a better fit.  Your organization requires:

• The ability to reuse a portfolio of existing 3D assets, like computer-aided design (CAD) models, in the immersive environment              
• Direct access from the immersive environment to the diverse community that exists in public virtual worlds
• A very low-cost solution
• A solution that does not depend on IT involvement
• A full-fledged set of business applications for meetings, learning and training, and other use cases, right out of the box
• Easy-to-use, fully-functional document-oriented collaboration tools (e.g., drag-and-drop sharing, collaborative editing, and integration with enterprise document repositories)
• A Web-based solution A solution that runs in a Web browser
• Hyper-realistic graphics
• A product that has been generally available for a couple of years.

© 2009 ThinkBalm. All rights reserved.

Club One explores immersive tech for delivering training

by Erica Driver.

I first met Celeste DeVaneaux, senior IT manager with Club One, Inc., in September at the 3DTLC conference in San Jose. Over drinks at a Linden Lab cocktail party, she told me about Club One’s experiments with immersive technology. Club One’s story piqued my interest because their innovations in the realm of fitness-related habit-changing are applicable to corporate learning and development efforts. In both cases, a trainer or coach is trying to change the behavior of the learner. In Club One’s case the learner is a member of the fitness club. In more common enterprise scenarios, the learner may be an executive, new hire, or employee learning a new process or learning to use a new piece of equipment. So in mid-October I followed up with a more formal interview with DeVaneaux, who is the creative director on the project, responsible for the vision, design, and direction of Club One’s products in this area.

Innovators ask good questions – BIF-5 Summit day two roundup

by Erica Driver.

Yesterday was the second and final day of the Business Innovation Factory Summit (BIF-5). BIF-5 was an extraordinary meeting filled with lessons, insights, and inspiration. (For my take on day one, see the Oct. 7, 2009 blog post, “Lessons learned from innovators at the first day of BIF-5 Summit.”) I’ve been afflicted with the same bug as many of the other 300 people who participated: difficulty sleeping, and a compulsion to share the stories I heard. BIF founder Saul Kaplan warned us this would happen, and posted this on Twitter after the close of the summit:

 

The theme from day 2: “Question”

The strongest innovators question everything. Some questions kept recurring during the presentations. These questions are relevant to Immersive Internet adopters and technology marketers, who are trying to effect change in an early technology market:

• Why do we do things this way? Bob Schwartz, currently general manager of global design at GE Healthcare, asked himself, “Why does it have to be this way?” He was talking about the uncomfortable, “coyote” experience (cold, hard, emotionless stare) people have when giving blood at Red Cross blood mobiles. Stephen Tractenberg, president emeritus and professor of public service at George Washington University, commented on the legacy of the US higher education system. Why do we let a $2 billion university facility lie fallow for 4 months of the year? Our system is based on an agrarian model, as if students have to go home for the summer to help with the crops. Richard Saul Wurman, founder of the TED conferences and author of 82 books, insisted that the house lights be turned up and the stage spotlights turned down, after multiple previous speakers complained about the blinding lights. He said, “Why do we put up with anything? Why? If you have an itch, just scratch it, no matter where it is or where you are.” The lesson: the answer to “Why do we do things this way?” rarely is “just because.” If we dig deep enough, we may find an old, dead legacy. Understanding the legacy is an important first step for people trying to make changes.
• What do you want to do? Dr. Alice Wilder, educational psychologist and TV producer who worked on Blues Clues and other shows for children, asked, “Are you a big idea person, or a common sense implementer?” Both types are needed for invention to become innovation. Bill Taylor ruminated on the “What do you want to do?” question while he and fellow co-founder Alan Webber were being interviewed about their experiences founding, running, and then selling Fast Company magazine. When they launched Fast Company they wanted to write about the world as it could be and they thought it should be. Patricia Seybold of Seybold Group described how the question, “What do you want to create?” is core to the philosophy of the African Rural University for Women, where she is a council member. Students work with their families to envision what they want and then put a plan in place for achieving it. The lesson: innovators may not know how they’ll get where they want to go, but they uphold a clear vision of what they want to accomplish.
• Are you doing something you love? Bob Schwartz put it this way: “How do you find meaning in what you do? How do you give people rich experiences?” He was referring to work he’s done ranging from creating consumer product packaging at Procter & Gamble to redesigning the experience children have when getting an MRI using GE Healthcare equipment. Richard Antcliff, CTO at the NASA Langley Research Center, is one year into a management experiment in which he is letting the Strategic Relationships Office organize itself into teams. Employees and even contractors work (at least part of the time, in the case of contractors) on the projects they find interesting. Bye bye hierarchy. See the org chart below. Alan Webber, who has a new book out called Rules of Thumb, recommended that we all keep two lists: 1) what gets you up in the morning and 2) what keeps you up at night. By keeping these lists at hand, and living by them, we can make sure we are doing serious work that is meaningful. The lesson from all these storytellers: if people follow their passion and do something they feel is important, that are engaged and productive. And the world becomes a better place in the process.

© 2009 ThinkBalm. All rights reserved.

Lessons learned from innovators at the first day of BIF-5 Summit

by Erica Driver.

A challenge after a day at the Business Innovation Factory Summit (BIF-5) is synthesizing all the stories I’ve heard. Today, nineteen people each took the stage at the Trinity Repertory theater in Providence, Rhode Island, for 5 to 15 minutes to tell stories about innovation. They work in a wide variety of industries and have various job functions. Some are entrepreneurs and others work for Fortune 500 companies. I discovered that next-generation car maker Local Motors, which is built on an open innovation model, is in my own back yard. Carne Ross, former British diplomat and founder of Independent Diplomat, shared some of his experiences in Iraq and Kosovo, and on the UN Security Council. Greg Matthews of Humana talked about his team’s efforts to help transform a health insurance company from being in the business of sickness and death to being in the business of life and happiness.

The common thread that connects today’s speakers is that they pursue change; all are innovators in their domains. Themes that are valuable to Immersive Internet adopters and technology marketers flowed through today’s stories:

• Games and play are elements of learning and work. Greg Matthews of Humana said, “Everybody likes to play games.” The innovation team he’s on at Humana develops games designed to help people stay fit. Max Geiger, co-host and simulation consultant for the Deadliest Warrior TV show, said, “What we do is play. Play with science. Play is a real-world version of simulation.” Bruce Nussbaum, professor of innovation and design at The New School and contributing editor for BusinessWeek referenced John Seely Brown, saying, “Tinkering is back. Creating things, doing things is back.” Don Tapscott, author of about 10 books including Grown Up Digital and Wikinomics, said that in a $4M study he undertook, he found that between the ages of 8 and 18 years, the human brain develops differently based on the kinds of activity in which kids are involved. Kids who exercise their minds, including through multiplayer video games, develop critical thinking and leadership capabilities.
• People who serve as bridges play an important role in innovation. Paola Antonelli, senior curator of architecture and design at MOMA, said, “In the future, some curators will sift through information to make it accessible to people.” These curators are the bridge between people and the information they want and need. Saul Kaplan, founder and chief catalyst of Business Innovation Factory (BIF), took it further and said, “The next hot job will be curating.” Ethan Zuckerman said, “When you’re encountering other cultures, find the people who are bridge figures.” He found that people who seek out bridge figures often then become bridge figures themselves.
• Innovators lean on mentors and role models. Innovators take comfort in, and try to emulate, the bravery and wisdom of those who came before them. Several presenters mentioned family members. Both Sarah Endline, mastermind and chief rioter of Sweet Riot, and Jay Rogers , president, CEO and co-founder of Local Motors, named their grandfathers as great influences in their lives. Don Tapscott said he turns to kids — including his own. Melissa Withers, executive director of BIF, named BIF founder Saul Kaplan as one of her great role models — along with her husband, and along with Michael Samuelson, president and CEO of The Health and Wellness Institute.
• Innovators are determined to overcome adversity. Many of today’s speakers told personal stories of overcoming adversity, whether personal illness or the doubts of others. Jay Rogers of Local Motors said, “I become deaf . . . I have trouble hearing when people say it’s improbable.” Michael Samuelson talked about the difficulty facing breast cancer, as a man, and his fight to overcome it. He also made the point that he ignores people who tell him he’s being unrealistic. Gina Malone, futurist with Hasbro, kept working through treatments for metastasized breast cancer, pouring her energy into helping kids with AIDS in Zambia. Melissa Withers of BIF shared a hilarious story about her husband’s discovery of something not funny at all: the fact that he had testicular cancer.

© 2009 ThinkBalm. All rights reserved.

« Previous Page — Next Page »