Our Most Precious Resource

Technology is exploding at a rate our minds can’t fathom. Life is whizzing by us while we try and hang on to the tailpipe. There is no time to even take a breath, never mind figure out what we want to do with the rest of our lives. Or perhaps we don’t make time to breathe and think.

Five hundred years ago, there were no phones. People in the 1700’s didn't have cars. Several centuries ago, there was no way to schedule your next haircut through your personal computer. But we have made room for those and thousands of other gadgets, inventions, and advancements.

Tick Tock

We humans make room for new stuff and since we have a finite amount of time, we toss aside other stuff to make room for the new stuff. It's been said for generations that time is our most precious resource but there is something else we might be sacrificing.

Look around the room at your next meeting - after you check your phone for new messages, of course. Email is fast. Short texts are easy. Relationships take time and care. In our quest to do more with our time, let's not forget one critical element.

Each other.
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Kneale Mann | People + Priority = Profit

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Defining Innovation

It’s that time of year when we see all those lists – top this, best that, prediction this, future that. The list published on this site each year is simply some of the items I’m thinking about, you may do the same.

Fast Company began as a magazine in November 1995. After 17 years it remains a well respected outlet (and website) for technology, business, and design ideas from around the world. FC publishes many year-end lists and recently outlined what contributors and editors deem The Most Innovative Companies in the World.

Innovation may mean different things to each of us. It's akin to words like; important, good, essential, and leadership. Often it's a word attributed to the newest and shiniest simply because it's shiny and new.

For 2010, the Top 5 were Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Google, and Huawei.
For 2011, the Top 5 were Apple, Twitter, Facebook, Nissan, and Groupon.
For 2012, the Top 5 are Apple, Facebook, Google, Amazon, and Square.

Other notables this year include; DropBox, LinkedIn, Kickstarter, and PayPal. But there may be some you don't know.

To some, it might just be another arbitrary list. But it could lend insight into how to improve leadership and business ideas within your organization.

Kneale Mann

ideachampions

Sixth Sense: Tools Meet Life

The brilliant Pranav Mistry will blow you away with the stuff he is working on and most importantly, sharing with the world. He has committed to taking it one step further and will open-source his SixthSense software so we can all contribute and improve upon it. Pranav explains some of the things occupying his time at TEDIndia. [video]



Kneale Mann

visual credit: TED

The Web: It’s Amazing and We’re Not Amazed

Humans are inherently curious. This doesn't mean you have to be a PhD candidate in biophysics to be interested in finding answers. Our curiosity brings ideas which can often turn into bigger ones if we allow them to flourish.

The earliest ideas for a computer network intended to allow general communications among computer users was formulated by a dude named Joseph Licklider who was a computer scientist. He had this idea in the early 1960s he called it the “Intergalactic Computer Network”.

By the late 1960s, the U.S. Department of Defense hired Licklider to lead the Behavioural Science Command and Control initiative at the Advanced Research Projects Agency or Arpa. He convinced some influential people on the project that his idea of building a network of connected computer had some merit. That was the creation of the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network or the Arpanet.

The Arpanet becomes the Internet

Now we can click here, tweet there and spend far too much time complaining that it’s just not this enough or that enough. As Louis CK says, everything is awesome and nobody’s happy. We are tripping over technological breakthroughs every day and we still complain. I loaded a software upgrade yesterday and was complaining how slow it was within about two minutes. Case rested.

What now seems like a lifetime ago, back in 2007, Wired co-founder Kevin Kelly did a review of the first 5,000 days of the Internet as we know it. So add another 1,000 or so since then and see if our predictions can possibly keep up with advancements and reality. Feel free to make some predictions and we’ll see if you’re right in another couple thousand days.



knealemann

visual credit: TED
Other TEDTalks by Kevin Kelly.
Also published on Social Media Today

Digital Predictions from the Past

It’s early in the New Year. We tend to feel brave and have a penchant to make predictions. These predictions are often more long term than our resolutions. So I thought it would be interesting to rewind to almost seven years ago and see what a guy who is always living on the early adopter curve said about some things back then.

Chris Anderson, as you may know, is the editor-in-chief
of Wired magazine and website.

He is also a speaker and author. His first book in 2007 entitled The Long Tail argued that products in low demand or that have a low sales volume can collectively make up a market share that rivals or exceeds the bestsellers and blockbusters, if the store or distribution channel is large enough.

His second book Free was released in 2009. It was available as a free download for two weeks and over a quarter of a million took advantage of it. Amid controversy of his tactic, the book still debuted on the New York Times Bestseller list at #12 when the paid version was released.

This was a TED Talk Anderson did in 2004. Since then Wired has sustained an onslaught of unrelenting competition from official organizations and the blogosphere. Since this is prediction season, I thought it would be interesting to see how many of Chris' thoughts have come true, seven years later.

Wired is one of the most respected resources on technology and culture. Anderson continues to lead the charge. [video]



knealemann | email


visual credit: TED

Interruption | Integration | Improvement

"Your mind has a lot to talk about and it knows you can't pretend you're not at home."
Linda Solegato

In 1957, a woman is seen leaving her house, driving to work and though shocking did not speak on a phone during her entire trip.


Some 231 years earlier, witnesses claim a tall dark haired man traveled from his place of residence to the grocery store where he worked and got there without the use of motorized transportation.

"What great thing would you attempt
if you knew you could not fail?"
Robert H. Schuller

Less than 20 years ago, people all over the world were quickly discovering the ability to send electronic messages to each other over great distances on their computer.

And just this week, there were more stories written about the Apple iPad than the food shortage in Africa.

"Great minds have purpose, others have wishes."
Washington Irving

According to rumor, there was a time when the U.S. Patent Office was going to close. The claim at the time was all inventions needed were already invented. That claim seems rather preposterous now.

Every invention that has ever seen the light of day was something we had to integrate into our lives.

Got an idea?

Will it be an interruption, an integration or an improvement?

@knealemann
strategy. marketing. social media. communications.

image credit: i.zdnet