The Economist Innovation Awards

Aquí detalles

Este año se votará en cada categoría por el más innovador entre los innnovadores ganadores del premio en la década desde que se inició este reconocimiento de The Economist.

Las categorías:

Bioscience
Business Process
Computing and Telecoms
Consumer Products
Corporate use of Innovation
Energy & the Environment
'No Boundaries'
Social & Economic




Aquí los ganadores de las 9 ediciones anteriores del premio

Innovación 'lulu'

Aquí su sitio web

Un retador en la compleja y competida industria editorial



El autor es ahora su propio editor y también hace las veces de casa editorial: 'integración vertical' hacia adelante total :-)

Jobs-to-be-done?

1. No tener que ganar el favor del editor para poder publicar

2. Tener un canal de distribución propio de alta eficiencia económica (para libros y autores de 'lectores nicho' es muy útil)

3. La producción es también de altísima eficiencia económica pues se imprime bajo demanda

¿Qué pierde un autor al no tener un editor que le juzgue? ¿Y el lector?

De la página web de la compañía:

"Lulu.com te trae el mundo de la publicación online y la impresión de libros. ¿Quieres autopublicar tus obras? Las soluciones de impresión bajo demanda de Lulu permite que puedas publicar tu propio libro de forma fácil y sencilla. Crea un libro en minutos, publícalo con tan solo un clic, distribúyelo, véndelo e imprímelo para su entrega. Así de sencillo. ¿Quieres hacer un álbum de fotos? ¿Quieres crear tu propio calendario? Nuestra fáciles herramientas online de publicación te permite publicar e imprimir tu propio álbum de fotos o calendario en minutos. ¿Quieres convertir tu libro en un eBook? Te podemos ayudar con nuestras herramientas de publicación de eBooks. Con Lulu puedes auto publicar y distribuir tu eBook en formato EPUB haciéndolo compatible con Apple iPad, Sony Reader, Stanza y más. ¿No estás buscando crear o imprimir un libro? Lulu tiene una gran selección de libros, álbumes y eBooks a la venta. Con nuestros estupendos precios y gran selección, comprar libros en Lulu es una gran opción."

Alcatel - Lucent Innovation: lightRadio

Aquí, detalles

Jobs-To-Be-Done?

1. "Explosion in Mobile Data
Today, a growing number of users are accessing rich content and interactive applications over their mobile devices. This dramatic growth will continue – simultaneously increasing operating expenses and energy consumption.

The time to think about the future of the mobile network is now. lightRadio does just that - enabling a purpose-built, wireless broadband network that addresses cost, capacity and connectivity barriers."

2. "Technology that can double capacity and decrease TCO"

3. "The benefits of lightRadio are dramatic:

Improves the environment: lightRadio reduces energy consumption of mobile networks by up to 50% over current radio access network equipment. (As a point of reference, Bell Labs research estimates that basestations globally emit roughly 18,000,000 metric tons of CO2 per year). Also, lightRadio provides an alternative to today's jungle of large overcrowded cell site towers by enabling small antennas anywhere.

Addresses digital divide: By reducing the cell site to just the antenna and leveraging future advances in microwave backhaul and compression techniques, this technology will eventually enable the easy creation of broadband coverage virtually anywhere there is power (electricity, sun, wind) by using microwave to connect back to the network.

Offers major savings for operators: Thanks to lightRadio's impact on site, energy, operations and maintenance costs; when combined with small cells and LTE, this new solution can lead to a reduction of total cost of ownership (TCO) of mobile networks up to 50% (as a point of reference, Bell Labs estimates that TCO spent by mobile operators in mobile access in 2010 was 150 billion Euros).

Enhances quality for end users: by doubling macro capacity and reducing the cost per bit lightRadio opens up the possibility to offer new services and price points."

Más sobre Google+ (opina y comenta Nicholas Carr)

Aquí la entrada completa

Extracto introductorio:

"Google+, Google's latest attempt to crack social networking, marks a refreshing break from tradition for the Behemoth of Mountain View. First, unlike its predecessors, G+ entered the arena with something other than a spectacular and fatal bellyflop. Second, the site actually seems to have been designed rather than just engineered. It's a pleasant place. Third, it does a nice job of carving out at a newish space in a crowded market. The benefits of the site's most talked about feature, Circles, at this point remain largely theoretical, but the way it presents information is distinctive without feeling unfamiliar - a neat trick."

Más adelante Nicholas Carr propone dos muy atractivas explicaciones al crecimiento (o decrecimiento) de una red social en Internet, que tienen que ver con el uso y tipo de usuarios inicialmente involucrados en ésta, y la forma en que se pueda transformar luego, o no, la plataforma, en una que permita un uso más generalizado de parte de todo tipo de individuos.

Innovación colombiana en el Diccionario

Aquí su página web en Colombia

El suscrito dió (sin esperárselo) con esta excelente obra editorial cuando casí sucumbía al poder de las marcas: Larousse y Norma. Se trata de un diccionario a la medida para el estudiante de primaria de Colombia. Está hecho con pasión amorosa (se nota) y con el rigor de querer hacerlo bien para provecho de sus usuarios infantes. Recomendación sin restricciones: ¡Qué gran MARCA SM Ediciones!

Un análisis sobre Google+

Aquí la entrada desde el blog de Knowledge@Wharton: Will Google+ Help the Search Giant Succeed at Social Networking?

Extracto introductorio:

"With this week’s “invitation-only” launch of Google+, the search giant unleashed its latest attempt to stake a claim in the social networking space. But can Google successfully take on Facebook?

Critics point to Google’s underwhelming experiences with previous social networking applications, including Buzz and Orkut, as examples of the company’s inability to accurately assess market needs and respond effectively. But others point to Google’s deep pockets, previous successes in search and strengthening Android mobile platform as reason to believe the company can make an impact in the social media sector as well. Google+ also has the advantage of learning from Facebook’s shortcomings — for example, the new service allows users to be selective about which information is shared with different groups of followers."

Nuevo libro de Douglas Holt: Cultural Strategy (Innovación desde el Branding)

Aquí su página en amazon.com

Hardcover: 408 pages
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (December 9, 2010)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 019958740X
ISBN-13: 978-0199587407

El suscrito conoció a este profesor por su artículo-investigación Brands and Branding, de excelente utilidad para ayudar a pensar al estudiante desde una perspectiva no-únicamente-operativo-publicitaria, el tema de las marcas.

Innovación en la predicción (en el pronóstico)

Aquí el sitio web de la compañía: Epagogix

De su sitio Web:

""EPAGOGUE is the path that leads from experience to knowledge. Examples are particular experiences. Aristotle's 'epagogic' pedagogy is a form of teaching which proceeds from examples to an understanding of causes, as in science, which is always a knowledge of the universal"
Charles Hummel: "Aristotle (384-322 B.C.).""

¿Qué hacen?

Ni más ni menos que explicar (y sugerir porqué) un guión tendrá más éxito que otro de cara a la producción de una película; o si la música de una canción será un 'hit' o no, o cómo 'ajustarla' para que lo sea. Todo ésto desde el análisis matemático y estadístico del pasado: de los éxitos pasados en la sala de cine o en la venta de los CD's (o lo que sea que se venda ahora)

De su sitio Web:

"Epagogix helps studios to identify, enhance and deliver on-screen success, and guides investors in the creation of winning film-related investments.

Epagogix works confidentially with the senior management of major film studios and large independents, assisting with the selection and development of scripts, helping to transform scripts with low Box Office revenue potential into properties that can be profitably produced and distributed, and identifying scripts with a low probability of commercial success.

Epagogix's approach helps management of this most critical financial risk by delivering accurate predictive analysis of the Box Office value of individual film scripts, and by identifying and quantifying how and where to improve their commercial value. If requested, Epagogix sensitively bridges the gap between the financial and creative aspects of film production by providing quantified insights and advice to those responsible for script development.

Hedge Fund and Investment Managers work with Epagogix, determining highly targeted, non market-correlated risk/reward strategies for asset allocation, and developing fund-raising vehicles."

*****

Aquí Malcolm Gladwell reporta y hace la crónica en The New Yorker sobre estos genios.



(más o menos) i m p r e s i o n a n t e (¿no?) :-)

*****

Mi pregunta es: ¿Qué 'tipo de' (linaje de) gerente contrata tales servicios, y qué otro tipo prefiere no hacerlo?

Nicholas Carr debatiendo sobre tecnología en la tierra y en los cielos

Aquí y aquí

Extracto abrebocas (cierre de la primera entrada arriba):

"Genius emerges at the intersection of unique individual human potential and unique temporal circumstances. As circumstances change, some people's ability to fulfill their potential will increase, but other people's will decrease. Progress does not simply expand options. It changes options, and along the way options are lost as well as gained. Homer lived in a world that we would call technologically primitive, yet he created immortal epic poems. If Homer were born today, he would not be able to compose those poems in his head. That possibility has been foreclosed by progress. For all we know, if Homer (or Mozart) were born today, he would end up being be an advertising copywriter, and perhaps not even a very good one.

Look at any baby born today, and try to say whether that child would have a greater possibility of fulfilling its human potential if during its lifetime (a) technological progress reversed, (b) technological progress stalled, (c) technological progress advanced slowly, or (d) technological progress accelerated quickly. You can't. Because it's unknowable.

The best you can argue, therefore, is that technological progress will, on balance, have a tendency to open more choices for more people. But that's not a moral argument about the benefits of progress; it's a practical argument, an argument based on calculations of utility. If, at the individual level, new technology may actual prevent people from discovering and sharing their "godly gifts," then technology is not itself godly. Why would God thwart His own purposes? Technological progress is not a force of cosmic goodness, and it is surely not a force of cosmic love. It's an entirely earthly force, as suspect as the flawed humans whose purposes it suits. Kelly's belief that we are morally obligated "to materialize as many inventions as possible" and "to hurry" in doing so is not only based on a misperception; it's foolhardy and dangerous."

Otra de 'ventanas': ahora TOYOTA