Monthly Archives: June 2011

The 8 sources of customer value in mobile apps and marketing

Ross Dawson, June 30, 2011 at 10:02 pm

When I recently ran a webinar series for Ketchum on Tapping the Power of Mobile, our second session focused on running successful mobile campaigns. Perhaps the most important thing that companies and agencies delving into mobile marketing need to understand is that there must be real value for customers and consumers in order for the

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Crowdsourcing goes mainstream, shaping organizations and the future of work

Ross Dawson, June 29, 2011 at 12:00 pm

Crowdsourcing is rapidly gaining visibility as a mainstream business topic. The current issue of Outsource magazine has a good article titled The Road of the Crowd. It was written by Steve Bynghall, who produced the recent IBF24 event run by Intranet Benchmarking Forum, and who is collaborating with me on some projects. It’s a good

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The value of retreats: How physical space and distance creates mental space

Ross Dawson, June 28, 2011 at 9:34 pm

I am returning from a leadership development offsite for senior partners from a major professional services firm, where I ran a session on the future of business and how to talk about it with your clients. Yesterday, from the airport I was driven out of the city for almost 2 hours, to a small upmarket

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‘Aussie mafia’ sets up the “biggest startup hub in Silicon Valley”

Ross Dawson, June 27, 2011 at 1:43 am

News just in that Elias Bizannes of Startup Bus fame is helping setting up Startup House, a 36,000 square foot space in San Francisco’s hopping SoMa district where entrepreneurs will live as well as run startups. There will be 150 desks in the lower floor, with upper levels including offices of the StartUp Bus and

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The next generation of computer interfaces will drive better remote collaboration

Ross Dawson, June 26, 2011 at 11:11 pm

I have long believed that the evolution of man-machine interfaces is at the heart of our future. In Living Networks I described better Interfaces as one of the three fundamental shifts that are bringing the networks to life. For over a decade I have ranted about how the mouse is antediluvian technology for interacting with

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Marc Newson at Sydney Design Excellence Forum: the design process is always the same

Ross Dawson, June 22, 2011 at 12:27 pm

I’m at Sydney Town Hall, where iconic Australian designer Marc Newson is speaking at the City of Sydney’s Design Excellence Forum. Marc has had a powerful impact on many facets of design. His 1986 Lockheed lounge (one of which most recently sold for $2.1 million) and the 1988 Embryo chair were early landmarks in his

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LinkedIn demographics: global and diverse but most typical is an American male high-tech salesperson

Ross Dawson, June 19, 2011 at 12:48 pm

Some nice data on the demographics of LinkedIn has just been compiled, shortly after it has reached 100 million users. Notable are the country breakdowns, shown here: It is interesting to see India and Brazil so highly ranked, while Netherlands, Australia, and Canada, with populations of 17 million and 22 million, and 33 million respectively,

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Why Turntable.fm’s Lame/Awesome button is awesome

Ross Dawson, June 18, 2011 at 12:47 am

Turntable.fm has certainly created a sensation – over the last couple of weeks it has been one of the hottest topics on the web. Deservedly. It really changes the game in making music truly social. And the concept, the strategy, and the execution are superb. One of the things is really well conceived is their

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Keynote: The Business Opportunities of the Future

Ross Dawson, June 16, 2011 at 8:52 pm

This morning I gave the keynote at the MyBiz Expo 2011, on Business Opportunities of the Future. I had been interviewed for the cover story of February edition of MyBusiness magazine on which industries will prosper and shrink in the decade ahead. I shared some thoughts on the blurring boundaries of industries, and some specific

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Why crowdsourcing should (and maybe will) be the future of government

Ross Dawson, June 14, 2011 at 11:04 pm

You may have seen the marvellous news that Iceland is crowdsourcing its new constitution. Draft clauses are put up on the Internet for people to comment on below, or on the Council’s Facebook page. Council meetings are open and streamed live, video interviews with council members are posted on YouTube, and they interact with citizens

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9 great ways to make the iPad a useful work tool: structures, setup, apps

Ross Dawson, June 13, 2011 at 10:42 pm

When I posted a little while back about using an external keyboard with the iPad, I promised to share how I use the iPad for work. When I bought the iPad I found it quite frustrating for a while in trying to use the iPad as I wanted, but I managed to work it out,

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Who is the conscience of the global brain?

Ross Dawson, June 10, 2011 at 11:20 am

The Business21C radio program on Monday morning broadcast an interview with myself and and a representative of Anonymous on the topic of cybercrime. You can listen to the 25 minute cybercrime program as a podcast from the Business21C site. Here is the description of the program: Last month the hacking of Sony’s PlayStation3 system that

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Presentation: Build Your Business with Crowdsourcing

Ross Dawson, June 3, 2011 at 12:17 pm

Today I spoke at Australian Chambers Business Congress on Build Your Business with Crowdsourcing. Below are the slides from my presentation. Usual disclaimer: these slides are meant to accompany my presentation, not to stand alone. But in fact this time there is a little more detailed content than usual in my slides, as this was

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The brave new world of intellectual property

Ross Dawson, June 1, 2011 at 9:15 pm

Here is an excerpt from my book Living Networks, giving an introduction and context to my coverage of the fundamental shifts in the intellectual property landscape today: In 1421 the government of Florence awarded the world’s first patent to Filippo Brunelleschi for a means of bringing goods up the usually unnavigable river Arno to the

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Ross Dawson is globally recognized as a leading futurist, entrepreneur, keynote speaker, strategy advisor, and bestselling author. He is Founding Chairman of AHT Group, which consists of 3 companies: consulting, publishing, and ventures firm Advanced Human Technologies, future and strategy firm Future Exploration Network, and events company The Insight Exchange.

Ross is author most recently of Implementing Enterprise 2.0, the prescient Living Networks, which anticipated the social network revolution, and the Amazon.com bestseller Developing Knowledge-Based Client Relationships (click on the links for free chapter downloads). He is based in Sydney and San Francisco with his wife jewellery designer Victoria Buckley and two beautiful young daughters.