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May 06

[What Up] - News On Innovation

Posted by The Elves on May 6, 2008. Filled under Innovation, News.

How Google fuels its Idea Factory
“You can do whatever you want as long as you track it. We have very sophisticated measurement systems at every stage of launch. We have what is called trusted testers. Then beta test, which is forever. We do these 1% launches where we float something out and measure that. We […]

 

May 02

Taking Out The Logo-Covered Trash

Posted by The Elves on May 2, 2008. Filled under Creativity, Culture, Innovation, Travel.

Over at Signal Vs. Noise they’ve got an interesting little thing on airlines making small tweaks for huge impact, which reminded me of a story we heard from Southwest Airlines …
Collecting empty cups after a landing, flight attendant Rhonda Holley noticed Southwest’s logo printed on the plastic trash bag. Two things struck her - first, […]

 

Apr 30

Dorking Around At Dorkbot

Posted by The Elves on April 30, 2008. Filled under Events, Innovation, Music, Technology.

Last week we journeyed out to limehouse town hall in hackney to witness the latest Dorkbot event.
Dorktbot London is the UK chapter of a global collective dedicated to people ‘doing strange things with electricity’. Now, this might sound pretty niche (and it is), but we fervently believe that the hackers are the future - look […]

 

Apr 29

Tell Yourself The Answer Is Yes - Out Loud

Posted by The Elves on April 29, 2008. Filled under Innovation, Insight, Psychology.

Most objections against innovative ways to unearth exciting possibilities and opportunities are not actually a “No” at all.
When you ask people if they want to do something (for example “Let’s go and live with our customers for a week to discover how they actually use our products”), their consciousness will quickly rebound with what most […]

 

Apr 18

Under the Influence

Posted by The Elves on April 18, 2008. Filled under Creativity, Digital, Innovation, Technology.

I spent yesterday afternoon at Under The Influence in Borough Market, run by Iris, who I think are the real hot agency of the moment. They had hired 5 pubs and packed them with interesting people and interesting speakers talking about all sorts of subjects to do with the future. Loads of beer, good chat […]

 

Apr 16

An Inkling

Posted by The Elves on April 16, 2008. Filled under Ideation, Innovation.

French philosopher Rene Girard, spoke of the importance of having inklings. He also points out that there are 2 elements that make up inklings:
1) A vague sense of a whole
2) A glorious detail
The first is all about how you can have an out-of-focus perspective on a a problem, like a hovering cloud. The second is […]

 

Apr 11

Progress Comes At No Cost At All

Posted by The Elves on April 11, 2008. Filled under Innovation, Making It Happen, Technology.

Who says that progress needs to cost the earth? Park the thought of saving the planet for a moment and reflect on saving yourself the investment needed AFTER you have invested in a new innovation.
In an online New York Times article Eduardo Porter reported on the lure of the lights of Las Vegas. Mind […]

 

Apr 09

Making Things That Don’t Suck

Posted by The Elves on April 9, 2008. Filled under Entertainment, Ideation, Innovation.

People don’t set out to make bad products. It’s a truism, but that doesn’t make it any less impactful. Over at Wired they have an inteview with Ted Castranova, a social scientist at Indiana University, on the pitfalls he encountered whilst trying to create a video game based on the works of Shakespeare (although as […]

 

Apr 02

[What Up] - News On Innovation

Posted by The Elves on April 2, 2008. Filled under Innovation, News, Open Innovation.

Social networking for the sick
“The members of PatientsLikeMe don’t just share their experiences anecdotally; they quantify them, breaking down their symptoms and treatments into hard data. They note what hurts, where and for how long. They list their drugs and dosages and score how well they alleviate their symptoms. All this gets compiled over time, […]

 

Mar 27

Rampant Innovation

Posted by The Elves on March 27, 2008. Filled under General Musings, Innovation.

Scott Anthony wrote a thought-poking post on the question of whether there is such a thing as innovation running away with the fairies. Entertaining as the post is - making fun of buttons to start cars rather than keys (will this be the nail in the coffin of promotional key ring manufacturers, or will […]