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Do More with Less
December 5, 2008 Consumer Products, Innovation, Tech
The Gunnar Optik glasses from the Inc. list "Good office gifts for a bad economy"Inc. Magazine hrecently came out with pretty cool lists that I thought I’d share…
The first interesting list is 7 Gadgets That Help You Do More with Less - While all these products are pretty interesting, I want to point out my two favorites:
- Cardscan - I have a stack of 200+ business cards that sit in a carefully balanced pile buried somewhere on a shelf, so I completely see the benefit of a tool like this (assuming it works that is). If this doo-hicky can take the information and dump it into Outlook for me, then it would be worth the $260 price tag.
- Pocket Projector – Finally a pocket-sized projector! his is well worth the price. Hooks up to any computer, video camera, or regular camera, etc to display anywhere. Gone are the days of carrying around the heavy projector, case, cords, etc.
- Gunnar Optiks – A new category of product: digital performance eyewear. Wicked-cool glasses to help you prevent eye strain from staring at your computer all day. I love the concept, but I can just picture everyone in the office wearing these and looking like a group from another planet.
- TV-B-Gone – I have always had a dream that I could control traffic signals by pushing a button, thereby removing the nuisance of traffic from my life. Well, this isn’t that, but it is a step closer. TV-B-Gone apparently allows you to turn off any TV with a tiny remote. I could imagine that one could cause some serious problems with such a device, so use it at your own risk.
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A Second Life
October 21, 2008 Innovation, Office Insight, Tech
The author's avatar enjoying a virtual sit.Have you ever had a glimpse of an idea, told it to your boss who tells you to run with it, and then it turns into a life of its own. This is my case with Second Life. I tried to impress my boss at the time by showing him that I read Business Week, so I brought in an article on this futuristic video-game/alternate reality/buzz creator called Second Life. Not only was my boss not impressed, but he told me not to work on it. I did it anyway.
What is Second Life? According to its site……..
Second Life® is a 3-D virtual world created by its Residents. Since opening to the public in 2003, it has grown explosively and today is inhabited by millions of Residents from around the globe.
* From the moment you enter the World you’ll discover a vast digital continent, teeming with people, entertainment, experiences and opportunity. Once you’ve explored a bit, perhaps you’ll find a perfect parcel of land to build your house or business.
* You’ll also be surrounded by the Creations of your fellow Residents. Because Residents retain intellectual property rights in their digital creations, they can buy, sell and trade with other Residents.
* The Marketplace currently supports millions of US dollars in monthly transactions. This commerce is handled with the inworld unit of trade, the Linden™ dollar, which can be converted to US dollars at several thriving online Linden dollar exchanges.
Fast Company magazine recently wrote an article on the resurgence of Second Life and how to more effectively market in this virtual world. It is a well written article discussing some of the marketing failures in Second Life and what the most effective way to market is today. From the article:
“Second Life is not a place to make sales. It’s also a venue where large companies don’t have to spend $3 million to build an elaborate island when $10,000 to $100,000, usedjudiciously, can have a much larger impact. Linden Labs concurs. “New marketers often try to imitate another medium,” says Ginsu Yoon, Linden’s VP of business affairs. “Second Life isn’t TV or radio or even the Internet, all of which push information out one way.” “
Our original goal in Second Life was to create buzz. We found a partner and created a small little showroom in Second Life. However, nobody ever showed up, mostly because nobody knew we were there. So obviously Second Life is not place where “if you build it, they will come.” So we changed our strategy and decided to become part of the community. One of the lessons we learned is the Second Life community doesn’t want to be bombarded with your product. The inhabitants of Second Life are wary of traditional advertising; they are creative and want to be treated as the contributor to society that they are. So we ended up upgrading our space and creating a beautiful space and then we invited the community to participate in a critical thought process of our products and how we can best interact with the Second Life Community. We even had a Design Exhibition where many designers showed off their design skills in our promenade. We culminated this Design Exhibition with a 2 hour town hall meeting where designers, marketers, and a whole host of people from Steelcase interacted with people all over the globe in Second Life. It was a wonderful event, providing an opportunity for the citizens of Second Life to learn more about Steelcase and vice versa.
Get your avatar free and check it out…..click here to have your eyes opened to the new reality.
The second list Inc, put out is Good Office Gifts for a Bad Economy – I sure hope my boss reads this so he knows I’d prefer something on this list to a lunch at Applebees. Anyway, you can’t go wrong with any of these, but here are the best on the list:
