Beyond Creativity

Safer and healthier train/bus trips

The Problem:

- Travelling in a train and bus poses a health risk nowadays for frequent travellers and children

- When people initiate several GSM calls or use 3G/@450 laptops , it creates a lot of electrosmog in a space surrounded by metal walls, with poor connectivity to the base station.

- This phenomenon in trains is well described in the documents of Japanese researchers. Please, check their animation.

- In München (Munich) they have made quite comprehensive calculations about the radiation power density values in a bus. Occasionally the strongest field is in the same place, where the driver sits. Therefore, passenger safety may be compromised.

-  According to Clas Tegenfeld 6 simultaneous phone calls in a 3 hour long train trip is similar if you would personally have a cell phone attached to your head and transmitting for 1 hour and 36 minutes.

- This phenomenon and the health risk is very much similar to passive smoking!

The Quick Solution:

- Ban GSM/3G-phone calls and data transfer in buses. If necessary, allow SMS messages.

- Ban GSM/3G-phone in a certain car/carriage in a train. Cover the corridor doors with a Biologa type of foil.  Sell the seats in this car(riage) in higher price.

The Better Solution:

- Make a new twisted-pari Ethernet-cabling in each car/carriage/bus for certain seats. In new carriages, please, install this fiber optics cabling already at the factory. Attach this cabling to a router and then to an antenna on top of each carriage. Make sure you choose the right kind of antenna, many models "leak" sideways and passengers are exposed (again).

- Ban mobile phone calls and 3G-connections in trains.  Install detectors  that start making noise every time someone makes a call, answers a call or initiatiates a 3G/GSM/@450-connection. Make this detector sensitive enough, but allow text messages.

- Sell these  internet connection -enabled seats in higher price.

Above I invented online and now I will 'share the code'  to all railway and bus companies.

To make train trip healthier and more pleasurable :-)

BTW, in the future I will focus on low-emission and alternative technologies . Co-operation suggestions welcome  ;-)

Strategic Intuition by William Duggan - A Positive Reading Experience

Intuition? Nonsense!

First I was really sceptical about the whole concept. 

But after reading some pages of 'Strategic Intuition' I was forced to change my mind (which is always ... tough).

Duggan illustrates human achievements across time (Kopernikus, Napoleon, Buddha etc.). His introduction of history of science is thoroughly and interestingly written. Additionally, his brain research chapter explained me many cognition and learning related open topics.

All is centered around the concept of Coup d'oeil. It is like strike of the eye: a glance. This consists of 4 phases:

1. Intelligent memory. Expert intuition relies on your own experience, while strategic intuition draws on the experience of everyone else in the world as well. You don't just search the shelves of your own experience - you search out examples from history far and wide.
2. Presence of mind. You clear your mind of all expectations and previous ideas of what you might do or even what your goal is.
3. Flash of insight. In a free mind selected elements from various past examples come together in a new combination.
4. Resolution. This means resolve, determination, will.

After introducing these steps, Duggan goes to the world of business. With examples from Google and Microsoft he shows how strategic intuition works in commercial settings.

So far, a fascinating book. I need to digest a bit more ;-)

To be continued...

Virtual Worlds - Where is the Business Beef?

Virtual worlds like Second Life provide some interesting features for prototyping new concepts. The following articles decribe some of these advantages:

- Virtual worlds get another life

- Scripting in the SL sandbox

On the 9th of June 2008 in Galway in Ireland we will have a workshop called "Going Virtual: Are There Real Opportunities for Business in Virtual Worlds?"

With Robin Teigland, Brian Donnellan, Brian O'Donovan and Steve Mahaley.

We will touch following topics:

1. How are business organizations using virtual worlds to create value?

2. What are the benefits of private vs public virtual worlds in these efforts to create value?

3. What are the best practices for implementing these virtual world efforts?

4. How are organizations attracting avatars in world?

Steve will be in the USA, while Robin, Brian D., Brian O. and I will be in Ireland.

Let's see how immersed we will get and how well we will 'fly'! (Since I love flight simulators, flying in the SL gives me kicks)

In the meanwhile ... Do you have a good Second Life collaboration or business practise to share?

Gatekeepers in the Innovation Process

In ECIS Galway in June 2008 Eoin Whelan and I will have a following session:

"Knowledge Diffusion in R&D Groups: The Impact of Internet Technologies"

Abstract:

Knowledge flows are the lifeblood of any R&D organisation. These firms are increasingly
discovering that the knowledge they require is often located beyond their boundaries. In this paper, we investigate how R&D groups acquire and diffuse external knowledge and the role Internet technologies play in this process.

The focus of our study is on the technological gatekeeper. Previous studies have found that gatekeepers are key nodes in the innovation process. These sporadic individuals have the skills to identify useful knowledge outside the firm and disseminate this among their local colleagues.

However, much of the seminal gatekeeper research has been conducted over two decades ago. In the time since, there have been huge advances in ICT and especially Internet technologies. These technologies have dramatically altered how knowledge workers source and share their information. Our objective is to advance the gatekeeper theory into an era where the knowledge worker is saturated with information. Using case study methods, we examine knowledge flows in the R&D group of an Irish medical devices firm.

Our results indicate that due to advances in Internet technology, the traditional gatekeeper no longer exists to any great extent. Instead, the modern R&D lab acquires and diffuses external knowledge through a combination of a ‘web gatekeeper’ and a
‘knowledge transformer.’

You are welcome to participate the session or comment the topic beforehand !

Open Innovation and Strategy - Focus on Communities

Remember Porter's Five Competitive Forces?

1. Rivalry
2. Buyer power
3. Supplier power
4. Substitutes
5. Barriers to entry

Nowadays, if a company only focuses on them and misses communities, it may be counter-productive.

In the latest CMR article Henry Chesbrough and Melissa Appleyard point out:

"All of the tradional views are based upon ownership and control as the key levers in achieving strategic success. All focus largely within the firm, or within the value chain in which the firm is embedded. Non take much notice of the potential value of external resources that are not owned by the firm in question, but may nonetheless create value for the firm"

To illustrate the difference between Open and Closed Innovation, they differentiate Value capture and Value Creation in a company and in a community:

"The lingering questions for the business strategist are: Who actually is capturing the value created by open invention and coordination? How are they doing it?"

Finally, Chesbrough and Appleyard introduce a new concept, Open strategy.

"Open strategy balances the powerful value creation forces that can be found in creative individuals, innovation communities, and collaborative initiatives with the need to capture value in order to sustain continued participation and support of those initiatives"

After all this, I welcome you to take also a look at Michael Porter's newest work, " The Five Competitive Forces that Shape Strategy" from HBR, January 2008. A miss-match?!?

Riverdance - Creativity in Motion

As a long-time fan of Ireland, I managed to see the latest Riverdance show.

Wow, what a combination of great elements!

The video above provides only a glimpse of this phenomenon. Being in the actual show makes you feel The Sound Wall. Actually, these rhythms  make you move for days ;-)

Nowadays Riverdance includes Irish dances, Flamenco, Russian Folk dances  and American Step Dance.

Purists may not like it, but I and my wife did. Great dancers, musicians and singers. I happen to own a Bodhran but I never will learn to play it that well ;-)

Highly recommend !

Architectural innovation - Simple things save money and environment

Architectural Innovation is often a re-configuration of existing  components.

Question: What is the most efficient way to save energy (and money) in houses with electrical heating in Nordic countries?

Answer: 2 components are needed for this:

A Heat Pump

Soapstone fireplace/oven.

Explanation: Soapstone is one of the best materials to trap heat. Heat pumps are used to circulate energy from outside and from the soapstone fireplace. So elegant and simple ;-)

View Larger Map

Good to know: One of the largest soapstone deposit in the world is visible on the map. This deposit is close to village Melalahti, Paltamo county, Finland. It extends 10 km north and 1 km south from the road 22.  Additionally, this deposit it unopened, next to railway(!), waiting for Tulikivi or some mining company to figure it out ;-)

How can inventing be research?

Too often research and practise are totally separated tracks. I have met  inventors who dislike science and research, because "researchers have nothing practical to provide". Somehow I have a feeling that these sceptics do not really understand the current state of research and its methods.

True, the traditional, positivistic view on science does not accept inventing in the university.  However, design research and especially Herbert Simon's book "The Sciences of the Artificial" was the first attempt to introduce inventing in research and emphasise the importance of artefacts .

The term artifact is used to describe something that is artificial, or constructed by humans, as opposed to something that occurs naturally (Simon 1996).

"Building a system in of itself does not constitute research", saw Jay Nunamaker & Co. I agree. Theories need to guide the building process of systems and artefacts .

Artefacts are built, evaluated and demolished as part of design research. In Information Systems (IS) field this is called design science. If you are interested in building artefacts (software, models, prescriptions, etc) I recommend you to take a look at:

- Design Research in Information Systems, an overview by Vijay Vaishnavi and Bill Küchler (UPDATE D 20th Jan 2008) .

- Action Design - a method integrating action research and design science. Originally this was introduced by Chris Argyris. There is a company and a consulting methodology related to it. BUT, more interesting stuff is coming from Matti Rossi, Maung Sein, Ola Henfridsson & Co.  Please, keep on eye on their work.

- The evolutionary management-related work of Joan van Aken: "Prescription-driven research that provides solutions for management problems in addition to description driven research that enables us to understand the nature of problems but leaves undone the task of developing sound change programs".

- Theory of Design Science:  The latest article by Shirley Gregor and David Jones.

(If the links above do not work or you need more info about design research, please, let me know)

Afterword: Thanks to my advisor, professor Pertti Järvinen for advancing this field and my understanding.

COfundOS - OSS Werk? Synergies with CrowdSpirit?

Open Source Sofware (OSS) and Open Innovation are becoming closer to each other.

This was the first thought when I saw CofundOS.

COfundOS seems to be the first intermediary working on OSS basis.

Bidding for software this way is new to me. I like the openness of this approach: "All ideas and contributions on Cofundos are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 License. All project outcomes must be licensed under an OSI approved open-source license".

The developer of the COfundOS website and service is the Agile Knowledge Engineering and Semantic Web Research Group ( (AKSW) at the University of Leipzig, Germany. A great start and Good luck / Alles Gute with your efforts!

The COfundOS operation model  (not using word business model here...) is similar to CrowdSpirit.

An idea: Could CrowdSpirit use COfundOS to find OSS developers for the software development of those gadgets? Any open APIs or Web Services in these two services?

European Innovation Scoreboard (EIS) - What is missing?

In Galway, Ireland, I participated an excellent innovation seminar by director Dr. Willie (William) Golden. Discussions with him made me think about innovation measurements in the global and European scale.

There is an index called the European Innovation Scoreboard.
This scoreboard is actually an evaluation paper prepared for the European Commission.

The following input- and output indicators are listed in the EIS Scoreboard (Please, click the image to enlarge it):

Decision makers will most likely consider this EIS paper as de facto in their work. Our economies and our work will be mostly measured by those indicators, at least in Europe.

This index is not complete. The missing elements are partly noted in following papers. Especially I liked the additions of Anthony Arundel and Hugo Hollanders from Merit (Maastricht Economic Research Institute on Innovation and Technology).

What would still I add?

- The measurements of Open source activity in economies (see the writings of Rishab Aiyer Ghosh in First Monday).

- Innovation in Services and their measuring (Please, check the Service Blueprinting )

- Business model innovation (Please, check the Open Business Models by Henry Chesbrough)

One citation from the report: "Sweden, Switzerland, Finland, Denmark, Japan and Germany are the innovation leaders, with SII scores well above that of the EU25 and the other countries.".

Hmm, if service innovation and business model innovation could be measured in the EIS index, would these countries be innovation leaders any more?