May 14, 2008
Back in 2006 I was working on a venture I called SocialNet (MySocialMap), based largely on research by dinah boyd and the Vister application she and Jeffery Heer put together. The idea was to build a icon based visual map of relationships across multiple social networks and layer this with a Taste Fabric styled algorithm. Users would be able to visualize their relationships across social networks (something still not done well) as well as discover their networks propensity to like anything from brands to movies. After a couple of successful beta applications the initiative got bogged down in a bunch of issues from vendor management to time constraints (not to mention SocialStream). I had to shelve it late last year after a ton of work and a couple grand in expenses with only a barebones prototype to show for it.
Read the rest of this entry »
2 Comments | 
Innovation, Research, social media, social networking, Web 2.0 | Tagged: social graph, social media, social mining, twistori, wefeelfine.org | 
Permalink
Posted by changesgood
February 7, 2008
The Milken Institute, founded by Michael Milken the “Junk Bond King” and real life Gordon Gekko, in an effort not to be referred to as the “Junk Bond King” or real life Gordon Gekko, released an interesting research report on the state of capital access across 122 countries. The research looks at a bunch of factors like interest rates, equity markets, venture capital and the access to credit cards (the fuel of a million start-ups) and comes up with a ranking for each of the 122 countries. In the Top 10 are several countries most American’s couldnt find on a map, including the UK, Singapore, and Canada. I would have included the US in that list except it didnt make the Top 10 ranking in 2007.
Read the rest of this entry »
Leave a Comment » | Research, Research Summary | Tagged: access to capital, death of an empire, Entrepreneurship, financing, Milken Institute, Research | Permalink
Posted by changesgood
November 7, 2007
As someone who watches for trends in technology one of the many sites I frequent is Trendwatching.com. They offer a bevy of free research reports on global Trends with pithy insightful commentary and links. If your not getting their free reports or buying the paid stuff, then your missing out. Their most recent Trend Briefing is by far the best I’ve read so far. They pulled out all the stops for this, their 5th anniversary issue, covering 5 of the hottest trends that are happening right now.
Read the rest of this entry »
3 Comments | a-list, A-List Blogs, Blinding Glimpse of the Obvious, Conjecture, Fun with PR, Futurist, great ideas, Humor, Innovation, Market Research & Intelligence, parody, Research, Research Summary, social ideas, tech humor, TrendSpotting, Viral marketing | Tagged: eco-fatigue, environment, environmentalism, Generation Z, hot trends, marketing, pet passe, trend spotting, Trends | Permalink
Posted by changesgood
November 7, 2007
Hats off to Amber McCracken, who knows how to write a press release headline. This top notch PR Flack for the National Womens Health Resource Center managed to write a headline that was so good, it jumped off the page, grabbed my eyeballs and forced them to scan a 12 page executive summary of something I have no interest in. What was it?
New Survey Challenges the Theory That Women Strive to Take Care of Everyone Except Themselves
How could I resist the possibility of finding definitive proof that women were just as selfish as men? I couldn’t, thats how. Being the consummate professional, Amber created another headline for an audience apparently more interested in helping women then I was because i didnt even glance at it twice.
Minority Women More Likely to Link Good Health to Happiness, Spirituality and Family
It turns out that the rather then the chart heavy, management consulting drivel, I’m used to, the good folks at the NWHRC actually put out real information. Which in case you’ve never seen it, tends to be lengthy, verbose and a real snoozer, Amber’s catchy headline not withstanding, this report is no exception. I didn’t even make it all the way though the executive summary, which was 12 pages long. Not to worry I got a screen grab from one of the reports more interesting charts…the scale is from 1 (very poor) – 10 (excellent) .
Leave a Comment » | horrible headlines, Research, Research Summary | Permalink
Posted by changesgood
June 28, 2007
Ok, so research Tuesday became research Wednesday Thursday.
Males Love Video Long Time
It’s been a reading week for me. Lots of great stuff to mull over and help shape ones thinking about digital media. Lets start with a report by consultancy Frank N. Magid & Associates with the irresistibly tantalizing header “80% of 18 – 24 Males Watch Online Video“. Only 53% of their female counter-parts are watching an equal amount of video. The report goes on to claim that news clips are the most watched content type. Teenage cat fights, skating injuries and soft-core porn dont even chart according to the report thus greatly reducing its credibility. Via Digital Media Wire
Ladies Love Drunk Texting
Ever gotten a drunk text at 3am from a former girlfriend, proclaiming her undying love and mounting desire for you? Maybe this just happens to me… Well, thanks to a new survey put out by Samsung we now have some fun research on these women. Yup folks, the technocrats at Samsung have put out a pretty funny research report outlining some of the cell usage behaviors of single women. The title is a good indication of the rest of the report: “Single Mobile Females Find New BFF: Their Cell Phone“. It’s a funny fast read lite on details with blog worthy data pulls like 40% of women experience “text shame” the morning after texting while inebriated.
Read the rest of this entry »
Leave a Comment » | Conjecture, Gadgets, horrible headlines, Long Tail, Market Research & Intelligence, mobile, mobile phone, Online TV, Quantification, Research, Research Summary, SMF, social ideas, Tech Musings, Technology & Entertainment, trend, TrendSpotting, User Generated Content, video, Web Resources, Zune | Permalink
Posted by changesgood
June 22, 2007
Bain, the KGB of consulting companies and breeding ground for presidential hopefuls, announced the results of a 10 year study on business which essentially said companies wont be able to buy or create a solution to their impending doom. Needless to say it was a bit of a downer. The study, book advertisement, announcement was a teaser for Chris Zook’s (a consultant with Cialis model looks) latest corporate page turner called Unstoppable: Finding Hidden Assets to Renew the Core and Fuel Profitable Growth. I havent read the book yet (hope its at the library) but the line below really jumped out at me:
The study reveals that by contrast, common paths that many companies pursue when their business gets in trouble – such as leaping to new hot markets, pursuing “big bang” transforming mergers, or launching broad-based innovation programs – solved the fundamental growth and survival issue only about 10% of the time.
So basically, “innovation” is not gonna save these firms, nor is trying to be more entrepreneurial and Web 2.0 savvy. According to Zook the only thing thats gonna keep’em going is if they figure out how to sell more of the same old stuff to new people or new stuff to the same old people. As someone who works in what might be called an “innovation program” and an advocate on the transformative powers of an entrepreneurial approach, this isnt a message I want to have widely promoted. Thanks goodness the book is not on a best sellers list so its almost guaranteed that no one in the executive suites of corporate America will read it. Still gotta figure out how to get it off of 800-ceo-read. If you work in an innovation group and find yourself confronted by Zook reading managers refer them to any work by Jane Linder and send them this article as a good antidote.
1 Comment | Chris Zook, Conjecture, Consultant bashing, Guru's, Research | Permalink
Posted by changesgood
April 25, 2007
Trolling SSRN I came across another academic report destroying much of the FUD put out by the RIAA in their attempt to criminalize digital downloads. Like all good academic studies it has a cumbersome and wordy title, The Analog Hole and the Price of Music: An Empirical Study, which belies the rather simple text contained within.
The report starts off with an exploration of the analog hole , which frankly isnt that interesting but then goes into how the analog hole will effect the pricing of digital music. They set off to answer two questions: Do consumers perceive a difference between analog hole copies and the originals? Kinda. At what price would they be willing to sacrifice some quality? Twenty-five cents. The sample size is pretty small for the survey, only 66 respondents, but the findings are really interesting. Read the full report here and check out the abstract here:
Leave a Comment » | academics, anti-drm, Digital downloading, Digital Music, file sharing, Market Research & Intelligence, monetization, mp3, p2p monetization, p2p research, pricing, Quantification, quantifiction, Research, Research Summary, Survey | Permalink
Posted by changesgood
April 15, 2007
Last week, I mentioned the survey from P2Pnet.net, that AllofMP3.com was promoting on their homepage. Well the good folks at P2Pnet have released some initial data and say they will release the entire data-set on Monday. So far they have over 750 respondents and what looks like some really good directional information on the thinking of at least a segment of the file sharing community. Watch for the full data, including answers to open-ended questions, to go live later this week and I’ll try to keep track of anyone that crunches the numbers and makes interesting connections.
Leave a Comment » | a-list, AllOfMP3, anti-drm, file sharing, Groups Opposing the RIAA, Market Research & Intelligence, p2p, p2p research, Research, RIAA, RIAA and Record Labels, Survey | Permalink
Posted by changesgood
Change Is Good 