Geeky Gadgets posted a most imaginative iPad stand made out of… pencils! 6 pencils + 4 rubber bands, to be exact.
Take a look at the result:
iPad Pencil Stand
Pretty amazing, don’t you think?
Read at their website the full article and the way this was achieved:
http://www.geeky-gadgets.com/the-pencil-ipad-stand-07-07-2010/
Did you know that Volkswagen’s “focus on mobility” extends beyond cars to two-wheelers? Neither did we until VW research and development chief Dr. Ulrich Hackenberg said so at this week’s Auto China 2010 show. Hackenberg introduced the VW bik.e, a battery-powered two-wheeler that resembles a bicycle without the pedals.
Read the full article by Ariel Schwartz at FastCompany.com:
http://www.fastcompany.com/1632669/vws-first-ever-two-wheeler-fits-in-your-spare-tire-compartment?partner=homepage_newsletter
Can you measure the impact from innovation?
BLOG | PHILMCKINNEY | FEBRUARY 1, 2010 AT 12:41 PM
One of the constant challenges for an innovator is to prove the value of their work. Many believe that innovation and creativity cannot be measured and therefore will always struggle with getting the respect it deserves within an organization.
The perception that innovation impact cannot be measures is a myth. At the same time, its not a slam dunk either. The challenge is getting an organization aligned on what the right metrics and measurements.
“The Economist believes that the world is governed by ideas. Because human progress relies on the advancement of good ideas, we are launching a new series of events that brings together top thinkers from around the world to discuss and debate the most important ideas of our time. By focusing on Innovation, Intelligent Infrastructure, and Human Potential, we imagine an ecosystem where good ideas move from concept to implementation, fueled by the power of human ingenuity, and only the best survive. Welcome to the Ideas Economy.”
See http://ideas.economist.com/ for more.
We have a lot of clients that use Teepin for other purposes too – not only to gather ideas.
Because Teepin, albeit very easy and lightning fast to configure, has so many options, it really can be used in a myriad of ways. One of those options is the ability to send an instant email to groups’ managers, whenever a new idea is submited, for immediate assessment. This option is off by default, but some clients like it turned on:
One of our clients uses Teepin exclusively to record building incidents, related to maintenance and security. Whenever someone finds a burnt light bulb, a broken coffee machine, a mysterious package lying around or even a lost object, submits the incident (= “idea”) on Teepin. Each type of incident is submited under a different category (= “group”) so the responsible for that category (= “group manager”) gets immediately an email on the incident, so it can be taken care of as quickly as possible.
And to take care of it is really simple too: just forward the incident to someone that can fix it (=”implement the idea”) and that person will have a new item on the “To-Do” tab. Once fixed, it reports the incident as such (= “implemented”) and the responsible person then acknowledges it.
If it’s something worth keeping an eye on, just choose someone to follow-up on it from time to time, and to report back each time! Teepin allows for all that.
Wouldn’t you like to have such a simple and friendly tool for that purpose in your organization?…
A very good post by Twitter‘s CEO, Evan Williams, with more than 2 years already, on alternative ways he came up to assess ideas. Excerpt:
“Tractability
Question: How difficult will it be to launch a worthwhile version 1.0?
Blogger was highly tractable. Twitter was tractable, but sightly less-so because of the SMS component. Google web search had quite low tractability when they launched it. Vista?: About as low as you can get.”
Read the full article – it’s worth it:
http://evhead.com/2007/12/how-to-evaluate-new-product-idea.asp
“Open innovation will not only lead to new ways of making innovation happen. Innovation leaders and their executives will also experience side effects. I think most of these effects will be positive, but some will be mixed or perhaps even negative.
As innovation leaders and their executives implement open innovation practices, they can just as well start figuring out how to deal with side effects of open innovation such as described below.“
The full article:
The Side Effects of Open Innovation
by David McCann – CFO.com | US
February 10, 2010
“Motorola uses a prediction-market variant to determine which among thousands of employee-submitted ideas merit a further look.
In 2003 Motorola rolled out a system through which employees could propose ideas for products or anything else that might boost the company's value. By one measure it was an unqualified success: it produced 10,000 ideas over the next four years.
But the volume of submissions to the system, called Think Tank, overwhelmed the review boards that were set up to vet the ideas. A backlog swelled, and missed opportunities abounded. In one case, a competitor brought out a product with features that had been suggested by a Motorola employee years earlier [...]”
Another insightful article by John L. Mariotti about the usefulness of ideas. This excerpt is taken from the introductory paragraph:
“There are millions of clever ideas out there. The challenge is whether there is a need for these ideas that is strong enough to cause someone to “buy them.” Just because an idea is neat, unique, clever or even useful, doesn’t mean that discriminating buyers will pay for it.”
The full article:
Inventions: Solutions in Search of Problems : Innovation :: American Express OPEN Forum.
