Back before I started at Megacorp What Counts Things, I worked for a smaller consulting firm. Back at that firm, we had a fellowship program. What that means is that there was a group of really freaking smart people we paid to say they were our friends. One of those really freaking smart guys was Alan Kay. If you're not familiar with him, he's the guy who invented the laptop … [Read more...]
Driving Relevance: A 3-pronged Approach
I've been involved with an initiative to transform search and information discovery at a company for a while now. We're trying some really groundbreaking things, but it ultimately comes down to getting the right information to the user when the ask for it, and we tend to call this relevance. Relevance is a tricky thing because, to a large degree, it is contextual. There are … [Read more...]
We Wish You A VR-y Christmas
So, the gift that keeps on giving at my house this holiday season is the Viewmaster Virtual Reality Starter Pack. It's basically Google Cardboard for kids. It works with any Cardboard-compatible smartphone and was easy to get up and running, then the payoffs just kept coming. I've been involved with VR since the mid 90's when I was coding "4D poems" in VRML. It seemed like … [Read more...]
Algolia: Super-powered Search In The Cloud Made Simple
The other day, a colleague alerted me to an article on techcrunch about a new cloud-based search service, Algolia. Algolia will index your site and then provide an API to integrate search into your site with millisecond response times. The promised effect is not unlike OS X's Spotlight, including thumbnails and categorized results. I decided to check it out on this blog. I … [Read more...]
Magic Just Means You’re Not Seeing The Source Code
Warning: This post gets pretty detailed and bit-twiddly. So, if your eyes glaze over at the site of code, you may want to read my post about good things going on in comics, instead. Spoiler Alert: My Kids Are Nerds There used to be a place called Magiquest at the local mall here in the Western Suburbs of Chicago. It was, basically, a LARP for kids - think Harry Potter meets … [Read more...]
What Does Digital Commerce Mean?
Commerce is changing at its core In fact, there's a fundamental shift in the very nature of what a product is. Products are in the process of transforming from artifacts to experiences. Golf clubs are no longer weighted sticks with which to hit a ball; they have embedded chips that integrate with software to help you analyze and adjust your swing. The club has gone from tool … [Read more...]
Thar’s Opportunities In Them Thar Challenges!
I'm afraid this post is going to read like enterprise-grade Chicken Soup for the Soul, but I'm going to write it anyway, because I'm hoping to capture what has been a really great lesson from my current work. I am currently leading a proof-of-concept to test the delivery of some new capabilities in the firm. Everyone involved (from vendor to stakeholder) is very excited … [Read more...]
Big Data In The Enterprise; Protect Your Jugglers
No matter how good the data is that you have about your people, there is no finite set of data that can't be improved upon by incorporating even more relevant data. Even if you've done a great job capturing and organizing your internal information, there is more information outside your firewall that paints a more holistic and accurate view of who your people are. The … [Read more...]
Book Review: The New Killer Apps
I just finished reading The New Killer Apps (How Large Companies Can Out-Innovate Start-Ups) by Chunka Mui and Paul Carroll. It was particularly germane to me since I work in an exceptionally large firm and my role is centered on innovation. As I reflect on the thesis of the book, I find myself energized to bring some of the lessons to bear on initiatives in which I am … [Read more...]
“If all you have is a hammer…
... everything looks like a nail." - Abraham Maslow I ran into a colleague earlier today. While we were sharing war stories, he brought up a time that he was working at a defense contractor. He was working with IT to solve an issue where they were trying to get a particular piece of data out of a legacy system and have it appear in a widget on a dashboard. Nothing they … [Read more...]