Mike Arauz: Spectrum of Online Friendship

Nancy reminded me that most online friendships are extensions of off-line friendships. So, who am I really talking about here?

This spectrum uses the relationship structure of people on the web who are reaching a point where they would actually say that most of their friendships are online only. While this is only a small fraction of all internet users, it's a quickly growing segment, as digital technologies enable us to expand our natural Dunbar number (which Faris raised and touches on here). For some people, it's even easier to maintain online only friendships (often with people in distant geographic locations) than it is with people you're expected to see in real life. Our traditional definition of friendship has evolved.

via mikearauz.com

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10 Tips for Creating Distinct-but-Linked Innovation Groups - Vijay Govindarajan - Harvard Business Review

Here are ten tips to nurture a strong partnership between innovators and the core business:

1. Articulate a motivating vision of victory in which both the dedicated team and the performance engine win.
2. Highlight the reality that the dedicated team and the performance engine are mutually dependent.
3. Create a common enemy: the competition.
4. Reinforce the values that the dedicated team and the performance engine share, even if they are simple and universal values, like a commitment to integrity.
5. Make the division of responsibilities between the dedicated team and the performance engine as clear as possible.
6. Anticipate resource constraints created when the shared staff must simultaneously handle the demands of innovation and ongoing operations.
7. Gather data to understand whether fears about cannibalization are valid or unfounded.
8. Alter incentives. Specifically evaluate "ability to collaborate across organizational boundaries" on performance reviews.
9. Use influential and collaborative insiders at points of interaction between the dedicated team and the shared staff.
10. When the innovation initiative succeeds, share credit liberally, with both the dedicated team and the shared staff.

via blogs.hbr.org

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Does Better Judgment Come With Age? - Tom Davenport - Harvard Business Review

The executive or manager who relies too much on a single or small group of advisors ignores the wider diversity of opinion that can shape a better decision. This is particularly true considering the "echo-chamber effect" we have all seen some leaders fall prey to, where advisors are (however unconsciously) selected and endorsed because they already share the same worldview and are likely to go along with the gut reactions of the man or woman holding the power. If the advice put forward has the additional sheen of elder year experience, it may be all the more possible to believe that the "second opinion" is in fact an authoritative reinforcement of what was already decided.

Beware the wise elder. It's not that he or she can't offer good advice. It's just that such experience can sometimes become a false and dangerous substitute for the breadth and diversity of opinion, combined with analytical rigor and shared problem-solving, that together make for great organizational judgment.

via blogs.hbr.org

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3 things you don't know about Old Spice's success - iMediaConnection.com

Article Highlights:

• Old Spice's success was not a lucky break; rather, it was a three-year process
• In order to succeed virally, you need doses of failure and the willingness to learn from those failures
• Wieden + Kennedy put creatives, digital strategists, community managers, developers, and editors together to dream up the 186 viral videos

Read the full article at: imediaconnection.com

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Nodalities » Blog Archive » Linked Open Data and Pavlova

Linked Open Data (LOD) is a concept that many believe they understand.  Take yourself to most any conference that has a connection with data, or the web, or the Internet at the moment, and it will not belong before you see a slide of the Linked Open Data cloud diagram, or of Sir Tim imploring us to give him our raw data now, or if you are very lucky a shot of him doing his imploring whilst stood in front of a shot of the LOD cloud.  -  Simple really, just publish your data as Linked Open Data and all will be wonderful as we move towards the sunlit Semantic Web uplands.  Unfortunately life is never that simple – LOD is not a single identifiable thing.  As Paul Walk eloquently puts it:

1. data can be open, while not being linked
2. data can be linked, while not being open
3. data which is both open and linked is increasingly viable
4. the Semantic Web can only function with data which is both open and linked

via blogs.talis.com

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Creative ways to solve usability problems

It's sometimes said that usability professionals are good at finding problems, but not quite as good at coming up with creative solutions. This article describes a creativity technique called SCAMPER that will help you effortlessly generate dozens of design solutions to any usability problem you identify.

Check out the solutions at userfocus.co.uk

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Hey, Big Spender – MasterCard Buys DataCash For $520 Million In Cash

The news comes a couple of months after rival Visa acquired another major e-payment company, Cybersource, for a total consideration of approximately $2 billion in cash.

DataCash offers a single, comprehensive interface that provides e-commerce merchants with the ability to process secure payments across the world. The European payment service provider develops and provides outsourced electronic payments solutions, fraud prevention, alternative payment options, back-office reconciliation and solutions for merchants selling via multiple channels. The company also markets a fraud solutions and technology platform.

In 2009, DataCash says it processed more than 240 million transactions for more than 1,400 merchants in a variety of sectors. Last year, DataCash reported revenue of £36.9 million (US$58 million). The company employs 362 people worldwide with operations in London, Dublin, Mannheim and Cape Town.

Here’s how MasterCard president and CEO Ajay Banga pitched the buy:

“E-commerce represents an important part of MasterCard’s growth strategy, and this acquisition will allow us to provide new services to our acquiring customers, as well as drive increased e-commerce penetration in both existing and new markets.

The acquisition of DataCash will expand our already significant e-commerce merchant gateway presence in Asia and Australia to European countries and other high-growth, emerging markets worldwide.”

via techcrunch.com

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