Archives: July 2006

Lebanon, Israel And The Role Design Thinking Can Have In Solving Social Problems.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on July 31, Categories: innovation

The tragedy that unfolds periodically and without fail in the Middle East is on display once again. We know the history. We know the facts. We know the emotions--fear, anger,...

Did WalMart Smile Too Much In Germany?

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on July 29, Categories: walmart

It's fascinating to see so many reasons being given for the failure of WalMart in Germany and its retreat by selling all its 85 stores to a German competitor. You...

The 1% Rule Or What YouTube Teaches Us About Who Really Does The Work in Crowds?

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on July 28, Categories: social networking

There is a fascinating piece in the Guardian on research that shows that if you get 100 people online, 1 will create content, 10 will interact with it (comment or...

A Critique of Chris Anderson's Long Tail Book.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on July 28, Categories: Creativity

Like most folks in this space, I've read a chunk of The Long Tail and a lot of commentary on it (more commentary than the book to date I'm afraid)....

IBM Jams for Innovation.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on July 28, Categories: ibm design

I've always thought there was something fundamentally wrong with the notion of the wisdom of crowds. To me, it all depended on the crowd. Stupid crowd, no wisdom (mobs are...

Innovation, Design, Consumer Experience--Call it a Banana But do it Because The Stock Market Will Reward You.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on July 27, Categories: innovation

Dan Pink has a great column on Yahoo showing that companies using design to improve their customers' experience have higher stock prices than those that don't. This is precisely what...

China Booms For US Exports.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on July 26, Categories: china design

China is slated to become the third largest export market for the US this year. That is big news. US exports grew 36.5% in the first 5 months of 2006--from...

Innovation and Work--Do They Mix?

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on July 26, Categories: innovation

"I have too much work to go to work." Now, think about that sentence for a moment. I sent this to my boss recently--and he understood instantly. I now find...

Logos--They're All The Same Again. Brands Get Cute.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on July 26, Categories: Creativity

Check out this parody of cutesy, gradient-colored, vowel-lacking logos which are so hot today. Amazing what you can do in web 2.0 format, right? And thanks to Jena McGregor at...

Innovation for the Blind from Johns Hopkins and Google.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on July 26, Categories: innovation for the blindf

Congratulations to the four mechanical engineering students at Johns Hopkins University who have designed a low-cost, light-weight, portable braille writing instrument for their Engineering Design Project class. They used design...

The Tesla Electric Roadster is Hot, Hot, Hot.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on July 25, Categories: cars

If you haven't checked out Winding Road's write-up of the new Tesla Motors' electric Roadster, take a break from work and check it out now. In addition to no emissions,...

Pew on Bloggers: They're User-Producers-Social-Networkers. Really.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on July 21, Categories: bloggers

The Pew Research Center has a new survey out on bloggers that you might want to check out. Here are some highlights: " 54% of bloggers say that they have...

Cirque du Soleil and David Rockwell's Birthday Party.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on July 21, Categories: Creativity

David Rockwell, architect and founder of the Rockwell Group, is a master of designing experiences. Whether its theatre sets (Hairspray), restaurants (Nobu), hotels (W), gambling joints (Mohegan Sun), a kids...

Apple Vs. Wall Street and the Winner is....Apple.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on July 21, Categories: apple design

It's amazing to see Wall Street blow it quarter after quarter on Apple. A huge 47.5% jump in third quarter income took analysts by surprise. Quarter after quarter they predict...

IBM"s India Gambit Pays Off. Europe Loses Out.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on July 19, Categories: innovation

IBM reported second quarter profits up 11% and said it was due in large degree to shifting the cost of what I call "information labor" from Europe to India. This...

Is Crowdsourcing Really Free?

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on July 19, Categories: crowdsourcing

Is free labor really free and is crowdsourcing really without cost, asks Ideaport, a new blog for me and an insightful one. Roger Dennis, author of Ideaport, has been in...

Chinese Gamers on YouTube.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on July 18, Categories: innovation

Stop whatever you are doing and check this out on YouTube. Chinese Gold Farmers Preview--it's the new world and its amazing....

India Censors The Internet.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on July 17, Categories: innovation

The first case of India censoring the internet has occurred. Without making excuses for this, as we are all discovering, bombings on subways (Mumbai just days ago), rockets on cities...

Backlash Against Crowdsourcing, Co-Authoring and the rise of Participatory Production.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on July 17, Categories: innovation

As customers become producers and take more and more control of the design of their products and services, the revolution (and make no mistake, it is a serious change in...

Philips and Participatory Design--or Co-Authoring.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on July 17, Categories: innovation

Philips Design does some of the most amazing work in innovation and design. Because of its weird business model, much of the really great stuff from Philips never shows up...

Beyond Ethnography--Participation, Crowdsourcing, Identity, Customer-ization.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on July 17, Categories: innovation

The desire, demand and ability of people to co-create their own products and services is reshaping our business culture fast. If you're a manager still trying to figure out how...

Jump's New Office Space Fosters Innovation.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on July 12, Categories: space innovation

Check out this amazing voice-over narrative of the new digs of innovation consultant Jump at our Innovation & Design site. It is just wonderful. Space and office environments have an...

Dell Does Design--And Gets Beat Up.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on July 11, Categories: innovation

Dell's director of industrial design, Ken Musgrave, gave me (and probably 1,000 other people in the innovation/design media) a show-and-tell recently, offering up new design directions for Dell computers. It...

James Dyson Sets Up the Dyson School of Design Innovation.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on July 10, Categories: Creativity

Here's a flash. James Dyson, the inventor of many things, including a best-selling vacuum cleaner, is establishing a new school for design innovation in Bath, England. This is very big...

Tufts Tests For Creativity--Harvard, Yale, Princeton and Others Should too.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on July 07, Categories: Creativity

Universities are beginning to make creativity and innovation criteria for admission for freshman. Check out this item in higher education that describes Tufts University's new policy. This is a very...

Hans Rosling And Data Visualization.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on July 06, Categories: Creativity

In the first issue of IN, we pointed to Gapminder and the great data visualization software developed by Hans Rosling. Check out Rosling's presentation at the TED conference on the...

The Devil Wears Prada And The Role of Mercurial, Nasty Creative Bosses.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on July 06, Categories: innovation

The fashion industry and its symbiotic cousin, the fashion industry media, are notorious for their impossible, bad-tempered, cruel, insulting, arrogant bosses. Whether they are running fashion houses or fashion magazines,...

Success Through Failure--The Essence of the art of Innovation.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on July 06, Categories: innovation

If you haven't read the remarkable cover by Jena McGregor in BW called "Eureka, We Failed! How Smart Companies Learn From Their Flops," get to it now. It's all about...

San Francisco's Airport Needs Better Signs.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on July 06, Categories: innovation

The San Francisco Airport needs better signage. Yes, I love SFO because it brings me to SF. But it does seem to take forever to move from the rental car...