Revenue Performance Management

An overview of Revenue Performance Management (RPM), which we were always doing, but saw some traction a few years ago.   It appears to be driven increasingly to being systematized.  Its basics remind me too of Retail Revenue Management (RRM) which relates to store design performance, which many large retailers have dabbled in over the years:   " ... Three tools -- marketing automation, sales effectiveness and analytics -- combine to provide the tools a company needs to implement revenue performance management strategies. RPM is still a relatively new idea, but what it boils down to is simply about using the data that is routinely given off by our business processes as fodder for the analytics engine. Too often that data goes unused ... "

LinkedIn Games

In Mashable. You can now play a whimsical Tetris-like game in Linkedin with profile head-shots. Does not drive you to a serious goal. But could make you stay on their site longer. This post also reminded me of LinkedIn's blog, which I had not looked at in some time.

The Future through the NYC 1939-40 World's Fair

Biblion, from  the NY Public library.  A big fan of predictions of the future and their success or failure.  The design of this free ipad app is very well done, with an introduction to this premier issue and forthcoming  work.  Is this the ultimate future of the library? 

Enter the World of Tomorrow and experience the 1939–40 New York World’s Fair through the collections of The New York Public Library!

The Boundless Library-- now available on the App Store--and go on an exclusive journey deep into the Library's legendary stacks. This app is designed to open up hidden parts of the collections and the myriad storylines they hold and preserve...through a unique immersive experience. In this free iPad app you will hold documents, images, films, audio, and essays — directly from the collections in your own hands.

Promise of Flexible Displays on the Shelf

We looked at the prospect of using flexible displays on the retail shelf.  This CACM article updates more of the possibilities (not full text).   Takes thinking beyond the rectangular.   Imagine a display molded onto most any surface.  Attracting shoppers, providing information just in time with the ability to interact at just the correct location.   Now all that has to happen is generating the content and have the connections to make it work fast, accurately and well.  Many people are working on it.

Reinventing the Pawnshop

Groupon founders reinvent the pawnshop with Pawngo.   Have always been interested in recycling and leveraging the wealth of modern life.  Here is another clever example in Pawngo. It may be the kind of thing that will not work in today's economy,  but it may work in one that is not too far away.  It will further need a retraining of the consumer.

Quest to Learn

I was recently introduced to the Quest to Learn school, using gaming ideas to teach.  I like their approach, but it remains to be seen if it is effective.   From their site:

Learning by Doing

Designed to support the digital lives of young people and their capacity for learning, Quest to Learn is a school committed to graduating strong, engaged, literate citizens of a globally networked world. Through an innovative pedagogy that immerses students in differentiated, challenge-based contexts, the school acknowledges design, collaboration, and systems thinking as key literacies of the 21st century. Within an integrated, rigorous Regents-based curriculum students work with teachers to gain the skills necessary to meet these requirements, and even surpass them. On-going evaluation and feedback create opportunities for students to plan, revise, and reflect on their own learning. The overall curriculum is rooted in mathematical practices and the use of smart tools, with an explicit intent to innovate at the level of how students are assessed in context. Most importantly, teachers work with students to build individual and academic competencies and enrich youth identity development within contexts that are relevant and meaningful.


The school has been designed to help students to bridge old and new literacies through learning about the world as a set of interconnected systems. Design and complex problem-solving are two big ideas of the school, as is a commitment to deep content learning with a strong focus on learning in rigorous, engaging, and relevant ways. It is a place where digital media meets books and students learn to think like designers, inventors, mathematicians, writers, and more. Q2L brings together teachers with a passion for content, a vision for helping kids to learn best, and a commitment to changing the way students will grow in the world  .... "

FarmShoring

Colleague Steve King in Small Biz Labs gives a good overview of Farmshoring ... " Farmshoring - also called insourcing  - describes outsourcing or locating operations in rural areas or smaller, lower cost towns in the US instead of moving them off-shore.  The main advantages are lower costs without the cultural, language and time zone issues associated with outsourcing work overseas ... "

Nielsen and the Ethnic Consumer

Dissecting the Ethnic consumer:   In Convience Store News, a look at data about ethnic shopping behavior.  " .... From what people watch to what they buy, behavior across ethnic groups in the United States is as diverse as the groups themselves, according to a new blog entry by The Nielsen Co.'s Cheryl Pearson-McNeil, senior vice president, community relations and public affairs, and Todd Hale, senior vice president, consumer and shopper insights.... "
The full Nielsen report.

Apple Provides Free Cloud

Announced by Apple today:  iCloud will compete with and likely severely hurt vendors that have as part of their services file synchronization.    Watch this carefully, it will also introduce many more people to the concept of the Cloud.

“Keeping these devices in sync is driving us crazy,” Mr. Jobs said, speaking at the opening day of Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference. “We have a great solution for this problem. We are going to demote the PC to just be a device. We are going to move the digital hub, the center of your digital life, into the cloud.”

And Wired makes some interesting comments on why a hardware manufacturer would make a comment like that.  The Mac or iPhone or iPad as 'just a device'?

Products Should Communicate Effectively

From the Harvard Blogs:  Yes, designed well and communicate to their context transparently. "  ... Obviously there are many dimensions of communication, but as these questions make clear, thinking carefully about the way products communicate can have an important influence on design decisions that may ultimately determine the success of a new venture ... "

What is next in Windows 8

In what appears to be a fairly radical change, Windows 8 will be looking very different than Windows 7. I am thinking of moving to a new vendor's OS during my next upgrade.  Right now I am 2/3 Apple.

IBM Offers Cheaper City in a Box

Had to smile at this one.  IBM has been pushing their Smarter City idea heavily in ads. Cities are in trouble financially today with the rest of government.  So they can hardly afford IBM's usually expensive solutions.  Even Fortune 100 enterprises can be shocked at the costs involved.  And the reactions are getting more extreme in the age of open source, the Cloud and the App.   So IBM has come up with a cheaper, prepackaged solution.

American Library Association Abstracts

Here the abstracts of the poster sessions from the American Library Association's recent meeting.  Having dabbled in library science and its reaction to changes in technology over recent years, I found it refreshing to see what is going on now.

Games in Employee Recruitment

WSJ Piece includes a good example of how the enterprise is using gamification.  I have seen similar examples in retail training:

 "  ... While it's not clear if "Farmville" ever did anything to inspire future farmers, Marriott International Inc. is hoping a hotel-themed online game could be a recruiting tool for the hotel industry. At "My Marriott Hotel," orders stack up at the restaurant. Meanwhile, the manager has to decide how many pieces of shrimp to buy for the shumai. The kitchen runs out of croutons for the Caesar salad and there's not enough money for a new stove .... "

Explaining Relevance Metrics in Search

Relevance metrics are important.   How can they be best explained?  Very similar to the issues we had in artificial intelligence in explaining results satisfactorily to the decision maker. 

The Evolution of the Semantic Web

Evolution Towards Web 3.0: The Semantic Web. A talk by Lee Feigenbaum . Good background and overview of direction.

Mind Map Library for Mobile

I am continuing my exploration of the use of mobile mind maps. Biggerplate is an example of such a library, containing some 1100 examples. Compatible with several popular kinds of mapping software such as IMindmap 5, Mindjet and IThoughts HD. I had examined Mindmaps in the enterprise, as a simplified form of knowledge storage. Easier to construct and manage. Imagine each as a nugget of knowledge that can be interconnected with others and adapted to solve larger problems.

These maps are not dynamic, they essentially outline their knowledge statically. But can be seen as the backbone of corporate knowledge, with more complex simulation and logic added as needed. If anyone would like to discuss this further, or collaborate, chime in or contact me.

MindManager for iPhone and iPad

An App version of the popular MindManager mind mapping software Mindjet for the iPad and iPhone is scheduled to come out around June 15. Costing 9 and $7 respectively.  I liked the software on Windows, particularly useful for those who like to be organized hierarchically.   The concept is very useful to teach to students.   I think it should have even greater value having the diagrams available on  a mobile device like a pad.   Here I am assuming the App versions are considerably less  powerful than the Windows version, since they cost 1/25 as much.  I am looking for a general,simple mind mapping App for the iPad.  I was first recommended iThought HD.  We will see.

Using Recorded Future

I have begun taking a closer look at the time oriented search engine Recorded Future for some potential client engagements.   Visualization is a key method they use for describing the results. Competitive intelligence is an area where I would have used it in a previous role in my Enterprise. Any examples you can share about how you are using it?       More on how it has been used.

Browser Fingerprinting

Who you are can be effectively  determined by the visible fingerprint of your browser and its configuration.  How much does this undermine your privacy?  Slashdot outline and links to a report by the Electronic Frontier Foundation.