Ink chat in Groove

This is cool. Groove has created ink chat for workspaces. Wishes:

• Enable the chat that every workspace has to use ink chat. Having chat as a tool is fine, but people don't use chat that way.
• Work on chat basics to have better notifictions and alerting so you know when someone has responded and that window isn't active.

10:21:15 AM    comment []

Interesting NPR article on Henry Ford

Interesting how they note that Henry Ford was not as much an innovator as a efficiency expert. His revolution was in manufacturing and optimization. Which worked for a time, but GM came along and recognized that people wanted to buy cars as expressions of themselves. Designing for individuals' self expression became a differentiator in the marketplace.

You can see the same argument playing/getting argued about over and over between the Mac & PC crowds. Dell, for instance, has built an entire business model around build to order pc's because in the market where the only differentiator is cost, you have to build pc's faster and cheaper than the next guy. Dell has optimized to where they carry less inventory and have less cash outstanding than it's competitors. They've got their house in order and can be poised to be a fast follower and allow others to do the innovation, but will they be able to sustain in the long run? Because Microsoft has desktop ubiquity, it furthers the PC manufacturers lack of ability to innovate and differentiate. These companies think that its by increasing sku's giving consumers more choice. What is the difference between the HP 120, 320 620, 735, 720, 812 935, and 950? Simply creating more skus creates confusion and delaying consumer purchasing decsions.

Gateway is seeing this need to break out of the PC manufacturing space because they are getting beaten down by not only HP and Dell, but Best Buy etc. So they are looking to sell all things electronic. But doesn't Best Buy already do that too? They need an experience layer to really tie things together and create an experience that is wholly different.

Interesting because I've noted how there is that same movement happening in software development. At frog, we create processes for clients by which they optimize the manufacturing of their software. Styleguides that unify the different development (software manufacturing) groups. This is great and it needs to happen, it's the industrial revolution for software. But there is the flipside we cannot ignore which is the innovation and designing of experiences to create differentiation.

9:39:06 AM    comment []

Making Sense Out of Baby Talk: Interaction with Mom Influences Infant Babble

9:10:12 AM    comment []