Amazon enters the payment provider market

DEBT FREE AT AGE 28!!
Originally uploaded by lemonjenny.

Yesterday Amazon announced it’s new service, “BillMeLater“. With just your Birthday and your social security number you’re in and able to checkout your shopping. That teaches us twice:
First, the service is for US citizen only. Other countries perhaps even don’t have a SSN number.
Second, they get access to your SSN-files to send you a bill to your address. The last thing sounds a little bit scary to me, since every data related to my SSN number should be private, secure and well guarded.
But perhaps US citizens do not fear the loss of privacy that much Europeans do. Anyway, that means that this service will have trouble to scale as a worldwide payment system. So far, Paypal and others must not fear it by now. But Amazon is a powerful company and the service will be worth to watch.

Products are people too

Products are people too
Originally uploaded by cvander.

Today’s most popular keynote was from Jesse James Garrett: “Delivering Rich Experiences”. Garrett, known for his naming essay about the Ajax technology, is an evangelist for simple & smart products. In the picture he’s just talking about the mannerism, that people get a familial connection to good products (”I can’t live without my new [car/phone/ipod/…]“). And products become a treatment like real persons too (”Don’t make the elevator angry, he might stop”)

I think the world still needs more products with “personality”.

Web 2.0 Expo Berlin: Tuesday keynote: Kathy Sierra: “Creating Passionate Users”

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Originally uploaded by Stephan’s Place.

Kathy Sierra was one of the keynote speakers today, and as I think by far the most entertaining one. This might be obviously, since you read her topic, which is her mission too. On person I spoke after her keynote said, there have been no news in her presentation (to him). That might be true, but first she presents that in a really entertaining way and second, she does it in an intelligent way delivering things you already know with a new viewpoint.

One thing she was talking about, was the point how companies caring about her customers before and after they became customers. She compared for example a marketing brochure for a camera with the user manual (which is the brochure you get after you bought the camera, with your bying decision based on the reading of the marketing brochure). On the one side a delighting and inspiring artwork, on the other side a technical manual designed by an engineer for an engineer’s use. And that is really, what we mostly get. Companies woo to “strangers” and deal cumbersome to existing customers. I bet everyone has a own story to proof that! How often had you to wait in the support line? How often did you actually benefit from special offer any company (like telco’s) provide to new customers?

Kathy was asking that question:

“Can you imagine, how it would be if companies would shift the budget and the talent of people away from marketing to customer education”?

A interesting thought, isn’t it? Even when I would not agree to leave marketing without a budget, teaching the customers better to make the best use out of your product can really make the USP. And caring for customers in a way they don’t feel upset when dealing with the company.

But, as the guy said, this is all no news. But it was good to get it in those clear pictures as a packed and user friendly and entertaining message once again. I hope Kathy don’t stop to do this, even if we all know it.

Web 2.0 conference keynote session

Jeremy and Duane during keynote
Originally uploaded by Porsche Pilot.

Today there been a lot of interesting keynotes. As everybody can see, I (second raw, 1st from right) was fully concentrated on the speech. Independent what happened else.

Web 2.0 expo in Berlin

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Originally uploaded by Stephan’s Place

Tomorrow opens the Web 2.0 expo and Interop congress at the trade show ground in Berlin. Visitors should take care since the entrance is not the usual main entrance, it’s the south entrance which is accessible from Jaffeestrasse (or S-Bahnstation “Messe Süd”). Loockup for that building at the photo.
See you.

GOS – the Google Operating System – released at Halloween

Well, the New York Times reports about a simple PC-offer at Wal-Mart stores, running GOS, the Google Operating System. That is supposed to be a Linux version optimized for Google applications. But the main issue is it, to make yet an other try to release a end-user friendly PC without an operating system from Microsoft. The power behind that try is big: It’s Google combined with the distribution power of Wal-Mart. But even if the offer is a cheap one ($298 without Monitor) to get access to the broad low cost market, the PC will not stand for hardware power. And people with less money not automatically looking for less quality. And still there is to add the price for a monitor. With about $300 you might get a system inclusive Microsoft too.

Anyway, it is an other try to break the Microsoft Operating system dominance. Today you may get much for free, like Star-Office instead MS Office and via internet bunches of free web 2.0 software offers, like photo-sharing or community software. In general you can meanwhile design a home-office PC free of licenses. Although that attempt is a bit lousy, Microsoft (and other license software producers too) should be scared.

Happy Halloween

Edit ( Nov 14, 2007): Today announced ZDNet that this PC is sold out. That success cries for more. I would guess, other vendors will step in soon.

Seminar Class Get-together in Heidelberg

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Originally uploaded by Stephan’s Place.

This weekend I had a get-together of my old seminar class with my alumni’s from the Technical University of Chemnitz. We studied together from 1979 to 19 84. For those who are not familiar with such classes, at that time students in east Germany were organized in classes during the whole scholastics time, learning according a semester plan.
Being part of such a scholar community was a lot of fun, and we meet every 2 years since that. This time we’ve been near Heidelberg, in a guest house called “Alter Kohlhof” , which has a very well leaded restaurant with excellent wines from it’s own wine production.
I just can recommend that.

Improving Collaboration Effectiveness

In his article ROI Demystified: Collaboration Tools, Nick Fera references the study “Competitive advantage from better interactions” which was published in The McKinsey Quarterly January 2007.

In that study McKinsey classifies labor into

• tacit work (i.e. complex interactions)
• transactional work (i.e. routine interactions)
• transformational work (i.e. extraction or conversation of raw materials)

Tacit work is, what others usually call knowledge work. The study shows, that in developed countries tacit work accounts for close to 50% of the overall work. This straight and simple definition of especially non-tacit labor clearly shows, that standardization and automation won’t work to raise the productivity of knowledge workers. Such work is characterized in contrast to routine work, because the bread-and-butter of knowledge workers is about dealing with exceptions and new challenges as well as variations. They can raise their productivity by getting rid of information overload and by raising the effectiveness of what they do.

While using our own collaborative software, I experience some of these improvements in effectiveness I’d never want to miss again:

Information Overload: We have met the enemy and he is us

I have read the case study: “Information Overload: We have met the enemy and he is us” from Jonathan B Spira and David Goldes, two analysts of basex.com. The study is very interesting, since it targets the ongoing change of the workspace around us. According to the study, 40% of knowledge workers are already working from non traditional (non-Dilbertian-) working places such as home offices, customer locations, hotels, airport lounges and so on.

clouds
Originally uploaded by dltq.

That kind of “nomad” working style is increasing across all sizes of enterprises. For example I know a small design team which is quite successful, never than less it left it’s presentable studio halls to work further from home. They use Skype as their main communication tool and that way they always stay connected. An other example: A former colleague of mine joined a consulting group one year ago, since then he never saw the official office again, working from customer locations or from home. Years ago, when I visited IBM in Stuttgart they showed to me their empty office rooms, claiming that their employees mostly work from customer locations or home offices. Perhaps the IT and the design industries are pioneers regards the nomad way of work, but it is the way of work which will infect all industries soon.

Mindquarry RH Spring interview

In May I’ve attended the Red Herring Spring in Monterey, and during that session I’ve got interviewed. Now the video became available. Unfortunately wordpress-online doesn’t support video-linking to others than Google Video, Youtube, DailyMotion, Grouper, Odeo, and SplashCast. Therefore I cant show it here. Just follow the link above.