Mark Earls – From “me” to “we”

Thanks to Mat kindly donating his ticket, I was able to go and see Mark Earls give a seminar entitled From “me” to “we” at the Royal Society. Rather shamefully, I am still yet to read Herd – the book (and associated research) on which the talk was based. This is despite regularly reading the [...]

How can research inspire?

The question in the title is predicated on the assumption that research can inspire. While the haters may disagree, I truly believe it can. Understanding the different ways in which it can do so is trickier. In a slight contradiction to my previous post on “insight”, I’m using the term “research in its most catch-all [...]

Crowdsourced consumption and product development

We are all consumers. We choose what to consume. But we also choose how we consume it. This may be completely different to how the inventor anticipated, or expected, usage. It is the law of unintended consequences. Contrary actions may prevent a product or service succeeding. But equally, an innovative use that builds on the [...]

Links – 8th February 2009

I know it’s overkill, but the snow excitement is yet to abate. I didn’t create this snowman, but he is so exceptional that he deserves all the publicity going. Picture by me Anyway, things I would recommend reading include: Live | Work have an absolutely brilliant post on Service Thinking – a must-read Umair Haque’s [...]

Links – 30th November 2008

This list is both later and longer than recent posts, but the quality of thought and writing is extremely high Changing industries Seth Godin on things the New York Times could have done to stay ahead in the digital environment. While hindsight is a wonderful thing, and while every successful online venture is greeted by [...]

Crowdsourcing needs confines

Last week I went on a media planning course. Once the introductions, overviews and drinking socialising was done with, we got down to business with developing a media strategy for a new value range of products. In an afternoon. It was incredibly challenging (especially considering we were all researchers) but extremely rewarding. We eventually found [...]

Links – 27th August 2008

Another shorter list. Rather than my getting more clinical in pruning bookmarks, I believe the main reason is that the Internet gets a bit quieter in August (and I’m posting this earlier in the week). Blog-related: Seth Godin upsets direct marketers – by suggesting that if we click ads on sites we like, we can [...]

The failure of the wisdom of crowds

James Surowiecki’s The Wisdom of Crowds argues that across a large and diverse group, the average response will be better and smarter than individual experts. He illustrates this point with the jellybean answer. In a large room of people, few will get close to guessing the correct number of jellybeans in a jar. But the [...]