Exploring social business strategy

When it comes to the Web 2.0 and the process of “creative destruction”, a lot of people associate it more with the latter word than the former. After all, we hear story after story of entire industries being washed away – and what replaces them simply doesn’t provide a livelihood for nearly as many people.
So [...]

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Last week I wrote about The Hipstery, focusing on the concept of using data to create and leverage “blind spots”. This week I’m going to talk about SeatGeek – a relatively new start-up that uses existing data to empower customers, and potentially alter the dynamics of the secondary ticket industry.
What SeatGeek does is gather information [...]

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My job as executive editor at nGenera Insight involves doing a lot of research about new business models and start-ups tied to the Web 2.0. Over the next few weeks, I’m going to be sharing a high level overview of some of the work I’ve been doing recently. Today I’m going to start by talking [...]

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In most cases, getting something for free is preferable to paying for it. But now always. One example I’ve always found intriguing on this front is online dating sites. If you’re (say) a very attractive female, it’s HIGHLY likely that you will be inundated with messages from potential suitors. But by making the suitors pay [...]

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On Monday my colleague Naumi Haque sent me a link to an interesting article by Professor Francis Heylighen titled “Why is Open Access Development is so successful? Stigmergic organization and the economics of information“. It provides a great overview of open access / self-organizing systems in relation to traditional economic theory, but the part I [...]

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Today my favorite writer – The Sports Guy – wrote an excellent column about Bill Belichick’s “reckless” call to go for it on 4th and 2 when his team was up by 6, on their own 28 yard line, with just over 2 minutes left to play. Much of the article goes into great detail [...]

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Yesterday the Globe and Mail had a story about how the wealth of Canadian households had rebounded last quarter, after declines for most of the last year. While this is seen as positive news in regards to our economic health, I believe there’s an important element the report leaves out – wealth of Canadian households [...]

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Every year I join about a dozen high school buddies and head out on an NFL roadie. Every year it’s a different team – with New England, Green Bay, Cincinnati, and Indianapolis being among the most recent destinations. Many of the tickets are VERY hard to get – particularly when you’re angling for a dozen [...]

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One of my primary research areas right now is “prosumerism” (think: producer + consumer = prosumer), which we use to describe what many people call customer co-creation: getting customers actively engaged in the innovation around, and creation of, the products and services they consume. One of the biggest questions in the space is around business [...]

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Stock markets are one of my favorite things to look at from a “wisdom of crowds vs. uniquely qualified minds” perspective. Over the last few decades the school of thought that supports the “efficient market hypothesis” (EMH)  – all known news is accurately reflected in current stock prices, thus there is no way for active [...]

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