State of the Union (Consumption vs. Production)

As the Arab Spring transforms itself into a Wall Street Autumn revolution its worth to pause and think what is really happening. I would like to share some of my thoughts in this blog post.  Interestingly the two movements mirror the fundamental problems in the our state of the union. While the Eastern World is fighting for true democracy the Western world is fighting the current Capitalism driven democracy.  The fundamental forces driving consumption and production (call it market economics if you like) maybe the common theme to both. Thanks to digital media (social networks in particular) & modern capitalism its pretty easy for people to see what they can consume/produce and they are obviously not happy with their current state. In this context the article, GDP Is Dead: Will The World Be Happier Without It? makes interesting reading. 

While there can be no one size fits all solution its worth to understand the broader factors driving current consumption/production. Its easy to blame “Greece” (or other economically backward locations for that matter) for the European crisis but identifying and fixing the real issues calls for a lot of hard work/sacrifices than fighting for rights in the streets. We need to understand how the next generation consumption and production looks like and how all the market participants need to adapt to it.  While a balance is needed in what you consume and produce, in a increasingly personalized/specialized world what culture of consumption/production is needed?

If Industrial revolution created “mass production” (with related employment) opportunities the current IT revolution is creating “mass consumption” (mobile devices and social networks being drivers) opportunities. While ERP systems of the past automated the production processes (read blue collar work) the current generation IT systems are automating service related process (read white collar work).  While the current increasingly automated physical and digital factories (across all domains of work) are disrupting the current patterns of consumption/production, we may well see revolutions all the year round.

The real question for me is how do we move from the current trends of mass consumption to one of mass production (using the human factor) as well, in a way that we can create wealth needed for consumption.  I personally feel Education is a fundamental input needed for wealth creation in the Knowledge economy.  The German mindset of “selbst machen” aka “DIY” culture imbued since birth in all activities (parenting, kindergarten/school, Television,…) is a good basis to think about creating a sustainable economy (the current strength of Germany economy is a good proof point for this).  While new production tools  are needed to support the new consumption patterns, the challenge is to get the best brains to work on the problems with maximum impact for the society in large. Providing open access to knowledge is another area fundamental for creating a sustainable world. While we seem to be making progress in some fronts still a lot more needs to be done. The recent call to arms for a “Enterprise Spring” by a leading Enterprise software advocate may be a portend of things to come.

While the recent demise of legends like Steve Jobs and Dennis Ritchie marks the end of a era we can only hope that new leaders will emerge to fix the current state of the union.

Marketplaces–Trends and Design

I would like to share my thoughts related to need, trends & design issues related to Digital Marketplaces in this blog. Marketplaces maybe as old as human history and Digital marketplaces have been also around for some time, may be with Stock markets being the most sophisticated forms of it. While EBay and Amazon made Digital Marketplaces more common, from the Dotcom era, its possibly Apple, with its Appstore model success, that has attracted the most attention for Digital Marketplaces for the mass markets. 

Why are Digital Marketplaces suddenly a craze again? The ease of content consumption and creation by the new Mobile devices has a lot to do with it. In this context its interesting to reflect over statements, “Content is King”, “Aggregation is King”, “Distribution is King maker”, “Contributor is King”. A related interesting article can be found here http://m.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2011/07/why-content-isn-8217-t-king/8551/2/  While the business models of different industries are being redefined I find the Big Idea from Strategy Guru Michael E Porter on “Creating Shared Value”  particularly important. The value creation in Network (be it Personal Social Networks or Professional Business Networks) driven growth is the new reality.  While all aspects of Value Chain are important and modern ERP systems have done a good job of automating business process, its how we can harness the Social networks (Employee and Ecosystem) to create Shared value in Digital Marketplaces, the new challenge.

While Apple has shown what is needed to build such Digital Marketplace others are busy trying to replicate it and improve it in different domains. Having products that can delight consumers, are simple to use, offer instant value, consumers can trust the provider and social controls exist on content are some of the key requirements for a successful Digital Marketplace. Building such Marketplaces would have two fold challenge. One hand creating technology/products to run such a marketplace (nice youtube video related to this) and on the other hand having management practices that enable open/transparent collaboration with ecosystem. The current emphasis on “Lean/Agile” processes and “Design Thinking” approaches are important to achieve this. I find the debate on “People vs Process” at the heart of this problem, this article (and comments!) throws some interesting light on this.

In conclusion I can only say there is huge efficiency gain possible in all businesses processes using Digital marketplace approach (and not just @Apple ). Business network can contribute to making the processes efficient, economical and consumption driven.  The challenge really is building such a Digital Marketplace to support “Shared Value Creation”.

Open Aid data reflections

I would like to share my idea that I had submitted to “Open Data Challenge” in this blog. Even if the idea has not made it to the winners, I think the idea is worth reflecting upon and hopefully implement it as well. The idea aims to use the “Open Knowledge Foundation” project IATI registry that maintains references to standardized XML file released by aid recipients, donors and intermediaries.

The idea is to create Datasets on grassroots agencies (NGO’s) working in development projects in a standard format (IATA format) by enabling ‘Self Service’ entry of such data by these organizations, including building useful visualizations on the datasets. This idea can take a lot inspiration from the World Bank aid visualizations that are currently available and AidData portal that tracks development finance. What I miss in the current solutions is a “Self Service” interface where recipients, donors and intermediaries can maintain the data for their grassroots development projects in a standardized format.

Who will benefit from this idea?

• This will provide transparent information access to (potential) grassroots aid donors on current funding agencies, causes and recipients
• Help (potential) receivers transparently access information on current funding agencies and causes
• Help funding intermediaries better match the interests of donors and aid receivers
• Enhances current aid data sets with grassroots aid data and makes the data more representative

What will be needed to implement this idea?

• Need user studies with grassroots agencies on “open aid data” needs and willingness to contribute to “Self Service” data entry
• Need to explore ways to aggregate grassroots aid data (both automated and manual)
• Build infrastructure / tools to help ‘Self Service’ data entry of aid data in IATA format
• Leverage related efforts regarding map features, API & Technology tools to help build visualizations. While CKAN IATI provides the basis needed for building grassroots aid data format and AidData platform can be extended with grassroots datasets it needs to be seen if data format needs changes/simplifications and to what extent current open visualization platforms can be reused

I would expect getting grassroots agencies to contribute to Open Aid data (be it manual or automated means) would be the biggest challenge. Given the potential transparency benefits for the Aid process it is well worth the effort to give it a try   Would be interesting to hear the views of others on it…

Emerging Business models

Watching the replays from the recent SAP Sapphire user conference two things that stuck out to me are – need for business model innovation and enabling micro consumption. Be it in the Enterprise IT industry or any other industry for that matter, Consumers demand  “Instant value based on Fresh content”. Most industry business models are not prepared for such agility.  This nice blog post @dahowlett highlights this for the Enterprise IT industry. While adopting to the bazaar business models pioneered by Open source software development become mainstream finding the right Content monetization model is the challenge. The music industry trends show case the current state of the art. The fact that Apple Appstore crossed the 500,000 mark recently shows that the power of micro consumption in the consumer IT has arrived. While Salesforce is trying to replicate this in the Enterprise space with the AppExchange and SAP with its EcoHub, Enterprise consumers can only benefit from the competition.

What is really preventing the traditional Enterprises from adapting the Bazaar type of Business model? The question if this is the right model for all Business to adopt is something I personally feel is not up for debate anymore. At the heart of adoption would be creating learning organizations that empower people to collaborate in the enterprise and across the Business network in a transparent way. In this context I like the thought on “social objects in the enterprise” by JP Rangaswami.  Making people across organisational boundaries to collaborate is difficult enough than the task of collaborating with business ecosystem is a major challenge to conventional organizational setups. The genY style leadership being promoted by Vineet Nayar from HCL is a good example on how we can get there. I also like the following statement from SAP Chief Sustainability Officer Peter Graf  “we need to manage entirely new type of resources – social impacts, environ impacts, network life cycle sustainability metrics (energy, water, ..) not just finance and enterprise assets (people, machinery,…)”.

I liked a statement from an expert at SAP Customer event Sapphire “Future is in harnessing diversity (be it people, technology, domains, systems) and ensuring interoperability for unlocking new value”. While the emphasis is mine, I think they highlight the key aspects of a Bazaar business model. Given the current smart customers who keep themselves informed in real time the next gen biz models begin with empowering the employees.  While providing “self service” access to content inside the enterprise has been mainstream for some time how this can be enabled for the business network will be key for the emerging business models. Enabling Amazon mechanical turk like efficiency to extended business process can make the “Bazaar” like business models possible.

Mobile user notes of a Tourist

Having recently come back from a short vacation in London (UK) I would like to share some of my thoughts on Mobile usage status and needs as a Tourist in this blog.

- Before our trip we were doing some research on places to visit in London so as to optimize time and cost. Having consulted with some London resident friends, visitors and online travel sites we had come up with a initial short list on paper. I wanted a digital version of this list (kind of Tour itinerary)  with map integration to show location details. Basically during research stage I was navigating different websites (travel sites + Google maps) to arrive at a list of places to see. Ideally I would have liked to consolidate this list, get it pushed to my mobile device and provide offline access. Kind of briefing book interface of this content would be great. In reality it was a pretty inefficient process (add stress factor) to actually visit planned places and my expensive mobile was under utilized due to the expensive roaming charges. Considering the number of people who have a similar need there may be some business opportunity for a techie here …

-  I understand Google Maps offers some way to mark (star) locations that you can reuse, I was trying to star locations on the map (based on where I am) from Mobile device but looks this feature is not enable. I know they have some feature to help you track your movements remotely but that is not what I wanted (think of the roaming costs!)

- I tried to use the Google Maps street view but found it as a good idea but still practically useless, at least the current implementation on the mobile device (am using Android HTC Desire).  I found the need a few times that I need some visual assistance (kind of augmented reality support) to go a place from where I am.  I know there is a app for that but possible trying to startup a different app for each need is something even a techie like me had not done naturally

- I was trying to use Foursquare to check-in at some locations and get some tips. The data quality and interaction speed was so poor that I gave up after a few tries.  I was actually looking for some kind of location history (details for a tourist spot I am currently at) and info on other interesting sites nearby. Yes my travel guide provides this information but my “smart phone” can make this process more enriching and fun

- We found out it can be difficult to locate and meet people even knowing they are pretty close by. There should be easy way to share location information and guide the user to the shared location. I know given the accuracy of our GPS systems this is asking for too much but the mobile networks know enough to provide a good enough approximation.

- The biggest hurdle to mobile data usage is the roaming charges. This is still far too expensive currently for tourists. Given the promotion budgets of Governments’ & local businesses to attract tourists, its amazing that the only innovative business model for free Mobile internet usage is to go to Starbucks. At some locations open Mobile Wi-Fi networks were available but did not work at least for me.

- There were lot of promotional offers  with complex pricing models (be it for using the public transport, visiting tourist spots, hotel stay,..). It would be interesting to have a Groupon like service which not only makes last minute offers but also helps optimize standard tourist needs

- It was helpful to use Mobile to locate nearest food joints (the user interface can be better). Use of mobile search and usage of user reviews has arrived

- SMS based messaging is still the killer app for mobile. Given the noise level in London subways it was the best way to communicate. Expect this will be the case for most big city tourists but can imagine instant messaging may also be helpful (if only we can get most users to one system, Facebook?)

- I was impressed by the wealth on knowledge at the Natural History Museum. It is a bit sad that you have to be physically present there to experience this. Given the current E-Learning technologies creating virtual tours for the remotest of schools in the world should be feasible. Actually it was notable how understaffed the museum was, considering the looming British budget cuts this can only get worse. Mobile technologies may help to augment visitor experience in a efficient way. Every object in the museum had a great story to tell (be it the Dinosaur skeletons or the many rock samples…) if only we can make them smart enough to tell their own story and enable the visitors to engage with them in a whole new way…

- Last but not least I had to visit the Apple store to experience it first hand. It was amazing to see people still waiting in queues for hours to buy the iPad. I am convinced mobile internet is here and hopefully we will see mass market data charges sooner than later. The apps to make Tourist experience more rewarding will come