Gravity - The Best Business Example of Google Wave, Period! | Google Wave Blogger

Got into this through FriendFeed. I guess, it's time for me to return back to the global discussion. Too mucn national intrigue lately. I'm fedup. But Google Wave is a new thing. How can I get an invitation?

Gravity - The Best Business Example of Google Wave, Period! | Google Wave Blogger: "Gravity – The Best Business Example of Google Wave, Period! October 7, 2009 by Google Wave Blogger · 5 Comments

I watched this video of Gravity and was simply blown away. This is the best example I have seen, to date, of what Google Wave is.Clearly, what it is not is a replacement for this and that (Twitter, Facebook, e-mail, etc). What it is, is the most awesome business collaboration tool ever developed! It is basically Web 2.0 for business…finally, BTW.

I have taken this description of Gravity right from their site and it reads as such:

Gravity is a prototype developed by SAP Research in Brisbane, Australia and SAP NetWeaver Development providing real-time, cloud-based collaborative business process modelling within Google Wave. We have embedded Gravity as a Google Wave “gadget” that can be added within the Google Wave client. Leveraging the collaborative features of Google Wave, all business process modelling activities get propagated in near real-time to all other participants of the Wave. In addition, participants of the Wave can use all other features provided by Google and its developer community to enrich the collaborative modelling experience.

Now watch this video. After you will understand the unbelievable power/promise that Google Wave can bring to the business world. I say again, it is not for somebody who has 25,000 followers. It is for serious folks trying to do real world problem solving via collaboration…i.e the grown-up side of Web 2.0."

Europe to get a London TechHub for startups to meet and work in

Europe to get a London TechHub for startups to meet and work in: "Europe to get a London TechHub for startups to meet and work in.

by Mike Butcher on September 24, 2009

Europe has no real equivalent to the big hothouse that is Silicon Valley, but it does have lots of tech clusters and networks. As recent research from the startup Seedcamp startup programme has shown, clusters of innovation are spread far and wide across Europe.

Helge:  Good point, we're more distributed.

One place everyone agrees is a key cluster is London. It now hosts offices belonging to all the top-tier pan-European VCs, several new Seed funds, has a very active Angel investor market and hosts many major tech events.

Helge:  London sounds like an easy landing strip for US business people.

However, largely because of its cost – everything is still expensive here – London remains hard for European startups to access and get into, even in a recession. It’s incredibly cheap to rent an office in Berlin, for instance. In London it can be double the price. And although European and US entrepreneurs often need to take meetings and work in London, they don’t always need permanent office space, which can be extremely restrictive to startups. Who wants to sign a huge lease before you’ve raised any funding? The preference is for working out of anonymous clubs, cafes, and perhaps sub-letting a single desk here or there.

Helge:  Meeting at the hotel. The same goes for Moscow. 

To some extent events and conferences are great for networking. But when you can actually rock up to a space and see people in your community — well, it’s unbeatable. That’s what the vibe is in the Valley, where you can literally walk into potential partners, investors and co-founders. That’s what’s lacking here in London, a key, lynch-pin city on the European scene.

Helge:  Short term meetings and real collaboration. Walking into your next networking partner isn't easy in a periphery location like Finland. That's why digital networking in Qaiku seems so natural.

So there’s clearly a problem that needs to be addressed if the startup eco system is to develop in Europe.

Helge:  Should there be a high-tech ghetto?

TechHub (@TechHub on Twitter) is new project put together by Elizabeth Varley which will address just this issue. Elizabeth has been involved in the London scene for a number of years, organised London Twestival and has recently been developing the concept of a physical space aimed specifically at the tech community and particularly at startups."

Helge:  London Twestifal...hmmm.


 

Dreaming up fantastic ideas

We are working with a new industrial and manufacturing structure.

Down-sizing is an healthy idea for those who want to find manageable future success.

We've to make more out of less.

China has become the global factory. The Finnish technology industry has to survive on doing small series that the big producers aren't interested in.

Faster iPhone With New Features Due Next Week - washingtonpost.com

The computer in your pocket wil be on the market next week. What should we be expecting?

Faster iPhone With New Features Due Next Week - washingtonpost.com: "Apple unveiled the latest version of its popular iPhone, called 3G S, at a trade show for Mac users yesterday in San Francisco. The company, known for using the conference to launch new, often game-changing devices, touted its next-generation iPhone as its fastest-running smartphone yet. The 'S' stands for 'speed,' after all.

Speaking from the stage at the company's Worldwide Developers Conference, Apple vice president of worldwide marketing Philip W. Schiller showed how the new iPhone's camera lets users decide what the lens should focus on with the touch of a finger. With a set of voice controls, users can upload an iPhone video to YouTube with a spoken command.

The new device, priced at $199 and $299, will be available at the end of next week, the company said. The more expensive version comes with 32 gigabytes of storage space, a new capacity for the device. The less expensive iPhone has 16 gigabytes.

And the price of last week's cutting-edge model, the iPhone 3G? It's been reduced from $199 to $99.

Tech pundit Tim Bajarin, with Silicon Valley think tank Creative Strategies, said the cheaper, older iPhone should allow Apple to speed up the adoption of the smartphone."

Visualizing your thoughts

I am trying to break out some new ideas about the making of micromovies. We live in a time when this should be an easy task. Movies can be made with pocket size smart phones while on the move. Distribution isn't difficult either. Getting viewers is still a challenge.

Mac Rumors: Apple Mac Rumors and News You Care About

Got this lead from Twitter. Need to go there more often. I've been too much focused on local and European tech news lately. Nokia's OVI did open today. There has been rumors about a Nokia mini-pc as well. Don't confuse with the minicomputers of the 70's and 80's.

Mac Rumors: Apple Mac Rumors and News You Care About: "Last week Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster claimed that an Apple tablet computer was in the works though it would not arrive until the first half of 2010 due to the complexity surrounding the operating system.

'We expect the development of such an OS to be underway currently, but its complexity, along with our conversations with a key company in the mobile space, leads us to believe it will not launch until CY10,' Munster says.

Apple Tablet rumors have been circulating for years, so weren't entirely sure what to make of this particular analyst report. One reader has since pointed out, however, that Businessweek's Peter Burrows was also able to get 'confirmation' of this Apple tablet from another source said to be familiar with Apple's product plans. If this source is to be believed, we may finally see an Apple Tablet as early as next year.

Rumors of an Apple Tablet have been a recurring theme here at MacRumors. In 2003, the rumors accelerated to a point where multiple credible source were pointing to the imminent release of a Mac tablet. We believe that such a project had clearly been in the works and may have even evolved into today's iPhone. Now, in the past few months, there has been an increasing number of reports that Apple is working on a device that fits somewhere between their laptops and iPhones."

Public Space Blogging - Graffitti

I've noticed that graffiti, clutter, public space tagging is increasing.

There are more people who want to tell something.

The tags are considered as a nuisance and cities spend large sums of money "for clean-ups".

But what is the story? Where is the message?

What are the taggers trying to tell us?

The pace of innovation

The pace of innovation will accelerate when we move out from the recession.

This is both a challenge and an opportunity to enterprises.

• Managing innovation
  
  
• The process of creative destruction
  
  
• Tastes and market demand change more rapidly

Apple and Google 2006

I wrote a web page August 2006 with the below content. These two companies have been doing quite well. They are not recession proof, but they have made good results anyway.

APPLE AND GOOGLE

The announcement by Apple that Google C.E.O. Eric Schmidt will join its board means that half of Apple’s eight person board has ties to the search giant. This means several things in the context of the Web, emerging technologies, and business. It means that Apple is looking to the Web as a platform for more applications. We can probably look for more Web-dependent products from Apple in the years to come. This is especially true if, as some analysts predict, Google is planning to take its omnipresent Wi-Fi experiment in San Francisco to other cities in the coming years.

Working on What is Going On

The recession isn't over yet. Now, it's a good time to get working with "the new". Innovations are needed more than ever to take companies and nations out from the recession.

Wait and see doesn't work when the new world order emerges. First, we really need to know, "what's going on?"

Most people think and hope that we'll land back to normal within a few months. I'm not sure about that this dreamland vision will come true.

New products, services and business models have to be created. The mighty Nokia has to make plenty of new moves to become competitive. Our stagnating Forestry industry has to make bold moves to survive the looming disaster; not all of them, but a few. Mergers are in the pipeline.

The small businesses are facing a new tomorrow as well and have to learn how to compete for local orders in a global economy.

The small guy has to learn the global play, to stay alive locally. The disaster hasn't hit the streets yet, except in the periferic tourist villages.

Things aren't business as usual in Levi and Ylläs anymore. We're going to hear trouble reports from many other destinations with too much hotel room capacity, silent restaurants, and empty tourist village shops.

Those with big loans will be hit hardest.

Written with E71, so there might be typo errors. I'll check with laptop tomorrow.

Digital Displays

There's endless speculation about how Twitter will make money - and when. I've been wondering, how long it will take to make the Future Store Concept to a money machine.

What about combining Virtual and Real to something that helps to create more compelling shops with more products and services in smaller space. Let's give the "nano" a thought.

Steve Rubel writes in his blog Micro Persuasion: "The brief history of online communities (all 15 years worth) informs us that it's virtually impossible to make money around them. No one has been able to build a sustainable business doing so that has lasted more than five years. The reason is, people online are fickle. We come and go. This is why I wrote that Twitter is peaking - at least as far as in its ability to grow users."

The shops could be open night and day. Some of them could be fully automated.

Making movies in no time

Making movies simply isn't a big challenge anymore. I can do movies with digital cameras or with my mobile smart phone. Cost isn't an issue, neither is technology. Making the movies boils down to ideas and accomplishment.

Professional movie making is still a challenge and requires expensive equipments, lights, a big team, you've to invest in good sound recording.

But these small new movie making gadgets can help me to tell a story.

- Micronarratives
- Idea is needed
- Make a quick content plan
- Context for what culture?
- Who is probably watching?

Connected identity was discussed at a seminar in Tampere 2002. The new tools can be used in learning, teaching, marketing, sales and product profiling.

We don't need a thick corporate manual about communication. The rules are now to be broken by those who adopt the new tools. Movies can be made while walking down the street. We can record transcendental moments and help your viewers experience the environment where you are.

Stand still, go nowhere, send your on-site projections, make it to on-the-spot concrete visual poetry. The potential of transcendence is there wherever you are. Start slow, move to expectancy, deliver a short story, it doesn't have to be longer than 30 seconds maybe 3 minutes and 14 seconds; the definition of Micromovies at that time [2002].

Mobile Blogging a Flipchart

Could you ever imagine a normal human being making / creating a mobile blog about a flip chart?

I'm doing that know. This drawing was made several years ago when we started to build a web shop for Snowdrop.

The process started in the spring of 2006.

What makes this "big news" now?

Our collaboration has continued and new departments to the store has been added.

The old notes and drawings do bring some new elements to the creative process. We don't need to run for new things and themes all the time.

That's a part of the learning...

Reflecting upon the old leads to a deeper learning of what actaully happened. Life is a continuous process and so is life long learning.

Much more has taken place during these years. The completed shop was finalized by Olli while he studied in France, at the Technical University of Troyes.

Now, he has finalized the technical parts of the GNLD-version a week before Easter. There are still some things to be done, but Alf has also been doing a lot during the past three years.

I'll write more about the organizational changes in an upcoming blog.

Reality tv is cheap to make

I start a mobile blogging series from my paper notebooks and diaries. The work will be done while being mobile.

The reality tv-programs are cheaper to make. The producers learned how to cut out costs.

The reality shows don't need to hire Hollywood writers. The writers now get a very small percentage.

Reality-tv has been along for quite some time and continues to be popular even though I don't like to watch.

Traditional TV is looking for new wasy to produce programs that will attract big numbers of viewers.

Computers and Mobiles Connected

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Originally uploaded by Helge V. Keitel

Imagine all the computers in your home or business connected to each other and to the Internet.

The future is going to become much more wireless and mobile. Wi-Fi is still red and hot, but still, FREE Wi-Fi isn't so typical as one could imagine.

Wiring the world, it turns out, means getting rid of wires.

Emil Keitel

Emil

Originally uploaded by Jeremy Brooks

My grandfather's name was Emil Keitel. He is dead since long ago.

- Lived his life in Wirby

My grandmother's name was Hilda Keitel

- She was born in Wirby

My father's name Otto Keitel

- Born in Wirby

My mother's name Anna-Liisa Keitel

- Born in Hanko

How to become more mobile

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Originally uploaded by Helge V. Keitel

I've been thinking about ways to become more mobile. Smart phones are a part of the solution, but maybe one should be looking for synthetic lubrication.

Here are some examples:

- Twitter
- Jaiku
- Qaiku
- Facebook
- Friendfeed
- Brightkite
- Bambuser
- Floobs
- Qik
- etc.

What are you using to boost your mobile productivity?

Auchan and the future store concept

auch1

Originally uploaded by Helge V. Keitel

We're busy working with the future store concept. Auchan is a big hypermarket chain in France.

I try to figure out the road side signage and print advertising and how it could be replaced by digital signage.

It's not enough to set up big screens all over.

Instead we should think in terms of using GPS navigation and other means to give clients carrying smart phones the information about our stores.

The public space clutter is probably moving to the digital space.

Ikea and the future store concept

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Originally uploaded by
Helge V. Keitel

Let's take a look at IKEA. The information below comes from Wikipedia. To learn more about IKEA, go to this link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IKEA

IKEA is a privately-held, international home products retailer that sells flat pack furniture, accessories, and bathroom and kitchen items in their retail stores around the world. The company, which pioneered flat-pack design furniture at affordable prices, is now the world's largest furniture manufacturer.

Helge: And Ingvar Kamprad is one of the richest men in the world.

IKEA was founded in 1943 by Ingvar Kamprad in Sweden and it is owned by a Dutch-registered foundation controlled by the Kamprad family. IKEA is an acronym comprising the initials of the founder's name (Ingvar Kamprad), the farm where he grew up (Elmtaryd), and his home county (Agunnaryd, in Småland, South Sweden).

INGKA Holding B.V. is the parent company for all IKEA Group companies, including the industrial group Swedwood, which manufactures IKEA furniture, the sales companies that run IKEA stores, as well as purchasing and supply functions, and IKEA of Sweden, which is responsible for the design and development of products in the IKEA range. INGKA Holding B.V. is wholly owned by Stichting INGKA Foundation, which is a non-profit foundation registered in Leiden in the Netherlands.

Inter IKEA Systems B.V. in Delft, also in the Netherlands, owns the IKEA concept and trademark, and there is a franchising agreement with every IKEA store in the world. The IKEA Group is the biggest franchisee of Inter IKEA Systems B.V. Inter IKEA Systems B.V. is not owned by INGKA Holding B.V., but by Inter IKEA Holding S.A. registered in Luxemburg, which in turn is part of Inter IKEA Holding registered in the Netherlands Antilles. The ownership of the holding companies has not been disclosed.

In August 2008, IKEA also announced that it had created IKEA GreenTech, a €50 million venture capital fund. Located in Lund (a university town in Sweden), it will invest in 8-10 companies in the coming five years with focus on solar panels, alternative light sources, product materials, energy efficiency, and water saving and purification. The aim is to commercialise green technologies for sale in IKEA stores within 3-4 years.

Helge: What do you think? What could we do?

RFID and Near Field Communication

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Originally uploaded by Helge V. Keitel

The Future Store Concept means millions of new possibilities. I think, the most important thing is to reshape the ideas of store design. The generic approach mean that we can deliver solution to stores on a global scale.

* Individual solutions
* Tailored customer interaction
* Thinglinks to conncet with clients
* Community Managers to do grassroots market research
* The store design has to support the needs and desires of clients