Day 5



But first I'll post that youtube video from P&G I mentioned in a previous post...(see panel on right...)

Mash-Up

OK, so what the hell are Mash-Ups all about?... If you believe that the combined is greater than the parts, as I do, then we have a bit of a framework from which to understand this concept. Furthermore, if you check out the sites like: zillow.com, zoominfo.com and virtualglobetrotting.com you can see how information is collected from the web in order to come up with such things as a virtual resume, property values and map/satellite views of people's homes - the datamining possiblities are endless! You can even see areas of crime in a city based on data collected from news and other sites (eg. chicagocrime.org) This could eventually disintermediate realtors and the value they add to finding a home...something they probably aren't fully aware of yet.

Second Life

Interesting and worrisome all at the same time. I have friends that are actually addicted to SL and have basically detached themselves from real life - they might even end up in a mental institution....Notwithstanding the negative implications of spending an inordinate amount of time in a virtual world, SL does have some benefits - and at some level could simply be viewed as a graphical representation of a chat room. So, this has the potential of training/educating employees and students in an online virtual world. Product development meetings and even recruitment of IT professionals is even possible with SL. There are even marketing opportunities for businesses and their exists the possibility to make real money (through the conversion of Linden $ with real $ via paypal) - although this is not recommended. There was mention of the recent Chinese competitor HiPiHi....scary because it's another reason for people avoid real life interactions and socializing in person....where does this end - the movie "The Terminator" comes to mind. But it exists, it is real and we need to be aware of the potential of this medium - at the very least be mindful of the simulation/modelling and training opportunities...

BPR

Business Process Re-engineering - I wish we could have spent more time on this very important topic. The Sports Illustrated/Superbowl/ - Standard to Digital Photography example (decomposing the process of taking photos) was a great way to introduce the concept, unfortunately the session felt too rushed. Process innovations like "order to listen" (ipod) and "order to cash" were discussed and for me the key take away was: "is value added/created or killed in each process" - clearly if the latter is true, then we need to figure out a way to improve or streamline the process (or even remove it altogether if not required). In the end it is really information and communication technology that can help us achieve and create the process improvement...