People-to-People: The Future Of Everything

Posted on June 4, 2010 by Scott Gould

On Wednesday 16th June, the evening before Like Minds Conversation Helsinki, I have the honour of being invited to speak at the prestigious Dicole Oz meetup.

Dicole Oz is hoted by Teemu Arina, one of our panelists at Like Minds, who Joe Pine referred me to – so it’s like minds allround.

I’m guessing most of you won’t be there in person (in fact, it’s full already) – but you can watch the live stream here at 18:45 on Wednesday 16th June, Helsinki Time.

I’m going to talk about People-to-People: The Future of Everything, something that any regular reader here will understand. People-to-People is the new way that we are operating in a knowledge economy, where people are more valuable than parts, and success is built not by the speed of a machine, but by the strength of your team. (Yes, there will lots of rhyming.)

Here’s the Test

I want to go to Helsinki and talk about this community. I want to talk about Exeter and bringing £100,000 into a city’s economy through social media. I want to talk about the stories of like minded individuals across the world – most of whom haven’t met yet. I want to talk about the depth of discussion that we generate here.

What I need are your stories and examples – from the boardroom, to the big deals, to the unique engagement, to the personal touches, to the new friendships – so that I go to Helsinki equipped with the examples to show what a people-to-people community looks like.

Let’s talk:

The 5 Innovations of the iPad

Posted on June 2, 2010 by Scott Gould

There’s been an iPad in my office for 2 months or so already, but with the UK release, I thought now would be a better time to talk about it. Whilst I’ll inevitably discuss some of the features, I want to keep to what I see as the key points of innovation, and draw some learning from those for future application.

Let me say right from the start: I think the iPad is a revolutionary device. Not so much for the device, actually, as it really is the culmination of 10 years of exceptional innovation from Apple that has created the right ecosystem to deliver the iPad. Without the ecosystem, it wouldn’t work.

So, here are the 5 innovations of the iPad:

1. You’re already using the iPad, even if you don’t have one

Because we are all pretty much accustomed to using some form of app store for our mobile device, whether it’s the iPhone or not, means that we are already using the iPad. You’ll understand what I mean when you get to holding the device, and then realise that there is no learning curve here – you already know how to use it, and if you’re on the iPhone, you already have a bunch of apps that are iPad apps that you know how to use and have installed.

This shows the power of the ecosystem that Apple have created – something that I would argue is actually Apple’s Real Asset that they’ve built over the last 10 years. They have easily tied in a new device into their existing ecosystem with such barrier-free adoption. I wonder what else they could do it with…

The fact that you already have been taught how to use it makes me think of Chip and Dan Heath in their book Switch, who say that it’s easier to start a journey that is already part of the way there, than start a shorter journey where you have to begin right at the beginning. With the iPad, it’s all the former. Once I installed the iPad from my iPhone backup, I had all my apps and settings in place, optimised for the new device. I’m already most of the way there. Continue reading →

Building the Kingdom: Number 1s and Number 2s

Posted on June 1, 2010 by Scott Gould

Over the last week, there’s been some great discussion from our community on the post “Are you a King or a King-Maker?” First of all – thank you. The depth of discussion has been exceptional and a very clear display of people who are all committed to being king-makers.

This post is in response to the comments and discussion, and presenting just a small truth that I learnt myself earlier this year.

To get you up to speed

The point we were making is that some people are kings and some people are king-makers. King makers are those who see the potential in people and work to make them the kings that they can be. In an age (particularly on Twitter) where everyone wants to be the king of their own personal brand, their own community and blog, complete with product and their own affiliate program, king-makers are increasingly rare.

Being a king and a king-maker are also not mutually exclusive – but the best kings are those who were king-makers first, and indeed continue to be so.

The liberation of it all

In the comments on the post, Randy Dunning said something that really humbled me and opened my eyes when he said:

Posts like this are very liberating in that they give people permission to do what is right.

Common thinking – even in relation to social media – is along the lines of “How can I leverage this to further my kingdom.”

I think he’s quite right. As I said above, there is this strong push for everyone to be a king of their own kingdom (no matter how small it is), and in turn, every social connection they have is seen as leverage to the advancement of said kingdom. This is what I’m probably going to call the Digital King Complex, because it’s what we are seeing everywhere. There is an immense pressure from every side, with bloggers telling other bloggers that they have to get a brand, get their product, get their affiliate program, get their feeds, and so on. Continue reading →