So, Facebook is evolving. With emphasis on at least 3 core web services – search, chat and the upcoming email – Facebook is getting more serious about functions that Google, among others, are doing well at providing. It makes sense. So here are some quick thoughts on what 400 million users...
Media companies seem to be falling over themselves trying to prop up revenues in an ever-changing environment. Yet, there seems to be very little innovation in how they’re going about it. For the last several weeks, much has been written about Rupert Murdoch’s plans to de-index from Google and...
Recently, Electronic Arts announced that it is acquiring Playfish, the company behind hit social games such as Who Has the Biggest Brain (mine is apparently 2568 cubic centimeters — which, it seems, makes me pretty smart amongst my friends but only slightly smarter than a door knob on a world-wide...
A retailer’s primary role may be that of curator and tastemaker, but that doesn’t mean that the crowds can’t pitch in to help. Modcloth is a Pittsburgh-based online retailer that sells affordable, independent designer women’s fashion. With a recently launched initiative called...
There’s a growing dining trend in several North American cities that has been gaining a lot of momentum. Instead of trying to just bring new customers to their restaurants, innovative thinking restaurateurs are also bringing their restaurants to new customers. Catering trucks and street food...
Apples Ipod keynote, boiled down to nothing but Superlatives. Enjoy this. Think they’re trying to let us know they product is Amazingly Nice and Just That Easy?
Spent a few hours in Nanjing Lu, the main shopping street in Shanghai with lots of shopping malls, department stores and restaurants… in a nutshell: everything the Chinese and tourists want in one street. I first visited this street 25 years ago and it was very different. Today’s Shanghai is...
The ultimate innovation challenge comes to America’s doorstep. It’s knocking, banging, kicking and screaming. Someone give that kid a lollipop and get to work. But there’s so much to do! Hmmmm… the economic crisis has destroyed banks, jobs, academic endowments, homes and more; there’s...
As part of Net Change Week at MaRS, Patrick and I were offered the opportunity to work with a non-profit called Social Purchasing Portal on helping them address some of the challenges they were facing in a variety of areas. The Social Purchasing Portal is a program whose primary goal is to create social...
Let me start this post by saying I’m sketchy. I don’t mean that in the creepy slang sense (although perhaps some of my friends might disagree). I mean it in the problem solving sense. Like 75% of the world, I’m a visual thinker, and I need sketching as part of my tool kit to describe the problems...
Quick… our business model is broken… let’s go back to what’s worked before… a long time ago.