Month: April 2005

[via Kottke] One of my favourite reads, The Economist, has an article — The Rise of the Creative Consumer — with ideas that I plan to use in my own role as the Tucows Developer Relations Guy…

LAST November, engineers in the healthcare division of General Electric (GE) unveiled something called the “LightSpeed VCT”,

a scanner that can create a startlingly good three-dimensional image of

a beating heart. This spring Staples, an American office-supplies

retailer, will stock its shelves with a gadget called a “wordlock”, a

padlock that uses words instead of numbers. In Munich, meanwhile,

engineers at BMW have begun prototyping

telematics (combining computing and telecoms) and online services for a

new generation of luxury cars. The connection? In each case, the firm’s

customers have played a big part (GE, BMW) or the leading role (Staples) in designing the product.

How does innovation happen? The familiar story involves boffins in academic institutes and R&D labs.

But lately, corporate practice has begun to challenge this

old-fashioned notion. Open-source software development is already

well-known. Less so is the fact that Bell, an American bicycle-helmet

maker, has collected hundreds of ideas for new products from its

customers, and is putting several of them into production. Or that

Electronic Arts (EA), a maker of computer games,

ships programming tools to its customers, posts their modifications

online and works their creations into new games. And so on. Not only is

the customer king: now he is market-research head, R&D chief and product-development manager, too.

I was looking for an excuse to post a Red Hot Chili Peppers pic.

Business 2.0’s article, The Great Giveaway,

takes a look at the tactic being used by Amazon, eBay and Google:

giving developers access to their databases — for free. Such an idea

would be unthinkable a little while ago, but by following Clay Shirky’s

maxim of what makes workable P2P (“Centralize what makes you money and

distribute what costs you money”) these three powerhouses are not only

enabling other businesses, they’re also driving customers their way and

turning themselves into application platforms.

This weekend, I’m flying down to Boston, and from there Wendy and I

will drive to the home of our friends Rachel “Velveteen Rabbi”

Barenblat and Ethan “Global Bacontarian” Zuckerman. Rachel will be the

rabbi at our wedding (with AKMA as the Christian ambassador), and we’ll

be there to discuss how we’re going to blend Filipino and Jewish

traditions in the ceremony.

There may also be some pre-marriage

counselling involved. Wendy and I have already done our homework; we’ve

listened to this 1950’s recording, The Marriage Union [4.3MB MP3]. Hey, Rachel, maybe you’d like to give this a listen  — y’know, just so we’re all on the same page…

Apparently, back in the 1950s, they thought they could get away

with an adult voice-acting the

part of an adolescent girl. Give it a listen, but be warned — this

piece is so full of treacle and cheese that you might want to keep an

insulin shot handy.

At GheeHappy.com

(ghee is Indian clarified butter), you’re going to find a goregously

cute site devoted to Indian culture. The artwork is gorgeous, from the highly stylized rendition of the Hindu gods to the playful typography that gives the site an India flavour without falling into cliche.

GheeHappy is the creation of Sanjay Patel, who in addition to having an interesting site also has an interesting job: he works at Pixar.

Here are some of his renditions of the Hindu gods…

Ganesha. “Please do not offer my god a peanut.”

Kali. This looks like what will happen to me if I am late to pick up Wendy from the aiport again.

Rama. He bears a striking resemblance to Roger Ramjet in both name and appearance.

Shiva. For the destroyer of worlds, he’s pretty cute.