Innovación ¿regresiva? (o sea que no hace "progreso" sino lo contrario)

Aquí el texto de la entrada del blog de Nicholas Carr, que podríamos titular: "Mnemosyne has become a machine.". Él la titula: Killing Mnemosyne

Extracto de introducción:

"It was, in retrospect, inevitable that once we began referring to the data stores of computers as "memory," we would begin to confuse machine memory with the biological memory inside our minds. At the moment, though, there seems to be a renewed interest in the remarkable, and not at all machinelike, workings of biological memory, due at least in part to the popularity of Joshua Foer's new book Moonwalking with Einstein. When I was writing The Shallows, the research that was most fascinating and enlightening to me came when I looked into what we know (and don't know) about human memory and its role in our thinking and the development of our sense of self. (An excellent book on the science of memory is Eric Kandel's In Search of Memory.) Here's an excerpt from the start of "Search, Memory," the chapter of The Shallows devoted to this subject."

Innovación pendiente en el reciclaje

Todos hemos visto los tarritos de colores, y eventualmente sabemos qué se nos está pidiendo hacer. Y de seguro voluntad (querer) para hacerlo no nos falta. Pero se está dejando en nuestras manos una tarea para la que fácilmente fallaremos: tener que decidir a qué tarro va lo que vamos a botar. De hecho, incluso separar-clasificar en nuestras manos antes de botar (por ejemplo servilleta y envase) somos capaces de hacerlo, pero, decidir adonde debe ir la servilleta y adonde el envase ya es mucho pedir: la mayoría de las veces irán la una, el otro o ambos al tarro equivocado. Recuérdese entre otras cosas que "nosotros": somos cortos de vista a veces, otras perezosos, otras más estamos afanados, tal vez ni siquiera sepamos leer, etc.

Solución: todo producto que va al cabo a terminar en un tarro de basura, o sea todo producto, debería venir con un "puntico", por ejemplo, con el color del tarro que será su última morada. Eso es todo. Al menos en esta fase del proceso de reciclaje. Obviamente, si además los productos traen componentes correspondientes a diferentes "colores de reciclaje" deberán éstos ser desarmables en la misma medida. :-)

Innovación pendiente: el paraguas

Es uno de los productos más susceptible de ser considerado el "menos inventado":

1. A todos se nos están perdiendo p e r m a n e n t e m e n t e

2. Son un estorbo "cerradas", donde sea que se pongan

3. Son un doble-estorbo abiertas: primero para el que la carga (que debe ocupar en ella la mitad de recursos disponibles en sus miembros superiores) pero sobre todo para el que camina al lado del que la carga (que expone sus ojos, su calva, etc.)

4. Si llueve moderadamente, no prestan gran servicio; si llueve a cántaros, no sirven de nada

5. Cuando llegamos a casa (o nos subimos al carro o al bus) son ahora un triple estorbo: 1) no hay donde ponerlas, 2) van mojando todo a su alrededor, 3) hay que volver más tarde a cerrarlas-acomodarlas... ¡para la siguiente ocasión de no hacer nada y si seguir estorbando mucho!

Preguntas sobre innovación y fútbol :-)

1. ¿Por qué lo más innovador en el fútbol viene siempre de la forma como juegan los jugadores (no de las reglas del juego, no de los implementos, etc.)?

2. ¿Por qué sin un desempeño de excelencia de un personaje "tan gris" como el árbitro, es imposible que ligas y campeonatos sean un éxito?

3. ¿Por qué aunque transcurran 100 siglos se seguirá jugando con 11 jugadores y en un campo de juego de 105 metros o un poco más de largo, y 68 metros o un poco más de ancho?

4. ¿Por qué suele ocurrir que los mejores técnicos de fútbol no han sido los mejores jugadores y viceversa (excepción: Johan Cruyff)?

5. ¿Por qué la innovación en la producción de las transmisiones en vivo de TV es tan escasa, si en ellas hay un negocio gigantesco precisamente por lo gigantesco de las audiencias? R/ buscar la clave en: derechos exclusivos de transmisión :-(

Innovation Tournament 2011 @Wharton

Aquí el detalle de la convocatoria que vence el próximo 7 de marzo de 2001

"Are you an innovator? Do you—or could you—have an idea for a solution that can be implemented in businesses worldwide? If so, you have the opportunity, as an individual or as part of a team, to participate in a global contest, obtain publicity for your solution and be a cash prize winner of up to $20,000.

Wipro Technologies, a software services firm headquartered in Bangalore, India, and Knowledge@Wharton, the online research and business analysis journal of the Wharton School of The University of Pennsylvania, have teamed up for the second year to conduct a global “Innovation Tournament“."

In Vino Veritas: Innovating in the French Wine Industry

La entrada es de Knowledge@Wharton

Extracto de apertura:

"How does an entrepreneur successfully introduce innovation to a gastronomic tradition that is a cornerstone of French culture and identity? Stephane Girard, who graduated from the Bordeaux Wine School in 2004, has launched a modern concept in wine degustation designed to make understanding viniculture more accessible by placing the individual's discovery of wine at the center of the experience."

El Jobs-To-Be-Done fundamental:

"In a Wharton entrepreneurship class, he led several classmates in creating a business plan to address the fact that wine drinkers often do not know which wines they like and why. He and a few others designed a novel concept comprising a wine bar, a wine store, and a wine club, all in the same location... even self-proclaimed wine connoisseurs found they knew less than they thought about their own personal tastes, relying too often on guides such as Wine Spectator or a restaurant sommelier instead of their own palates... He identified the opportunity to change how people discover and purchase wine, and decided that the wine bar/store/club concept he had developed at Wharton could work well."

La "operación" y el resultado:

"Imagine that you purchased a bottle or glass of wine, not because the label was attractive or you had read about it in a guide or magazine, but because you had tasted it and found it pleasing. WINE by ONE facilitates that experience through its three-in-one concept of a wine bar, store, and club in a single location.

A typical Parisian wine bar has a selection of 10 to 30 bottles, five to 10 of which are available by the glass. In contrast, WINE by ONE offers 100 bottles available by the glass, including approximately 20 bottles from origins as diverse as the United States, Italy, Chile, Australia, and South Africa -- a novelty in Paris, where international varieties are scarce. In addition to geographic diversity, the selection includes a range of styles from grand crus and full-bodied reds to French rosés and sweet dessert wines. In France, wines are normally categorized by appellation (region of origin). WINE by ONE, on the other hand, organizes its selection by "wine category" (following grape type such as chardonnay, cabernet, shiraz, etc.).

WINE by ONE's day-to-day function relies on distribution machines from the Italian company Enomatic. Each machine holds between four and eight bottles and dispenses wine tastings in three different sizes -- "the impression" (3 cl), "the temptation" (half glass), and "the sensation" (full glass). Customers add money to a personalized WINEcard from which the price of each glass is deducted automatically. Servings cost between €1 and €25 (US$1.36 and US$34), depending on the size and the wine. The machines prevent oxidation, ensuring a constant, ready-to-serve temperature and maintaining drinkability for two or three weeks.

By outsourcing the pours, the machines allow three employees to serve an entire bar. To guide the wine discovery process further, each machine has a WINEpad that provides information about each bottle, including notes from sommeliers, so customers can synthesize what they taste with a wine's technicalities. Unbiased by the recommendations of hovering waiters or barmen eager to fill their glasses, customers can examine the vast array of wines, reading the details of each on the WINEpad before choosing what to drink. By limiting staff involvement, Girard encourages customers to experiment and judge wines for themselves instead of through the biases of wine "experts."

Unlike at a typical wine bar, all 100 bottles can be purchased to take home from WINE by ONE. Moreover, unlike other wine stores that close in the early evening, WINE by ONE is open from noon until 10 p.m. These extended hours present a competitive advantage, as professionals who leave their offices late have the opportunity to purchase wine after other outlets have closed. Furthermore, when an individual discovers a bottle of wine, he or she can then purchase additional bottles to drink at home, making the connection between the consumer and the wine more lasting. These individuals are more likely to return to WINE by ONE to further their oenological education, Girard says.

The final component in the WINE by ONE equation is its wine club, a community of members with a shared interest in discovering wine. Loyal customers have access to themed tastings with producers and sommeliers as well as wine classes for connoisseurs at all levels. Typically, wine clubs are private communities arranged through institutions and corporations. WINE by ONE, on the other hand, offers the educational advantages of a wine club without the exclusivity or prohibitive fees. A first-time visitor to WINE by ONE becomes de facto a member of the club by getting a WINEcard. As a result, the WINE by ONE community has been building up very quickly. More than 5,000 "WINEcards" were issued over the first eight months, Girard says.

In its first few months, more than 70% of WINE by ONE's sales came from wines by the glass, approximately 20% from the sale of bottles, and 10% from the sale of food and other accompaniments."

Groupon: ¿Qué podía salir mal? :-)

Aquí el sitio de la compañía

Y aquí cómo funciona :-)

Readability

Aquí el sitio que ha creado esta simple (y necesarísima) innovación: que la lectura en la Web sea tan clara como en el papel: sólo letras :-)



A contravía del modelo basado en la publicidad, Readability confía en que los lectores paguen por el deleite de poder leer sin distracciones, ¿funciona?, ¿queremos que funcione?

Si porque:

1. Leer es ante todo eso: recorrer con la vista las letras, palabras, frases y párrafos... a la velocidad que el cerebro bajo concentración (dedicado a la lectura)exige

2. Está bien que la publicidad sea aliada de la lectura superficial (como la mayor parte de lo que publican los períodicos) y no está bien que lo sea de la lectura más profunda (como la mayor parte de lo que aun se publica en papel, en libros y revistas; y que debería hacerse en la Web)

3. Quizá algo así coadyuve a que las aplicaciones exitosas en la Web sean más del reino de lo profundo y menos del de lo superficial

La técnica abraza la política en las calles... Ops!

Aquí la entrada desde el blog oficial de Google

Extracto:

"Like many people we’ve been glued to the news unfolding in Egypt and thinking of what we could do to help people on the ground. Over the weekend we came up with the idea of a speak-to-tweet service—the ability for anyone to tweet using just a voice connection.

We worked with a small team of engineers from Twitter, Google and SayNow, a company we acquired last week, to make this idea a reality. It’s already live and anyone can tweet by simply leaving a voicemail on one of these international phone numbers (+16504194196 or +390662207294 or +97316199855) and the service will instantly tweet the message using the hashtag #egypt. No Internet connection is required. People can listen to the messages by dialing the same phone numbers or going to twitter.com/speak2tweet.

We hope that this will go some way to helping people in Egypt stay connected at this very difficult time. Our thoughts are with everyone there."

Art Project (from Google): ¡Sensacional!

Aquí la entrada desde el blog oficial de Google

Aquí el sitio del deleite :-)

1. La visita al museo sin salir de casa
2. La visión del cuadro asistida por la máquina que en mucho corrije las debilidades del ojo
3. La simulación fotográfica de estar ahí en la sala del museo, a solas...
4. La fe en que las obras de los maestros plásticos de todos los tiempos aun tienen mucho que contarnos
5. La técnica poderosa de las telecomunicaciones y la informática que virtualiza un sueño más de muchos que de otra manera quizá siempre sería sólo eso: un sueño

***

PS. Es el mejor substituto que el suscrito ha visto (con sus propios ojos) de algo que en principio no tiene substitutos :-)