Online Community Unconference East 2010

held at

Digital Sandbox, New York City

February 10, 2010

Watch the Faster Cures

video

to find out more about their real and virtual work toward finding cures for chronic diseases.

Its easy when we are being successful to stick our heads in the sand and believe our own PR. We can easily brush off minor threats with the argument that the customer wouldn't go for whatever was being offered. We hold on to the belief that we know best what trade-offs they are not willing to make. Be careful. As soon as you start believing your PR and juicy rationalizations as to why you will continue to be successful, you are setting yourself up to fail.

When things go wrong with technology (like that never happens!), men and woman react differently. When a piece of technology isn’t working as expected, guys will not give in. Its an ego thing … the technology will not win. They will fiddle with it, they will download a patch, they will check forums. For men, there is a certain level of satisfaction that comes from conquering the challenge of “making” it work.

A few years ago, someone started the rumor that if you ask me what devices are in my bag, I will pull them out and show them to you.  Even if they are prototypes.  This is mostly true.  I am sometimes barred from showing some prototypes … but if I can, I will show you what I am using and/or testing on any given day.

I participated in the “Next Big Thing” session hosted by CNET at CES 2009.  This session was about life in the “cloud” covering devices, services and bandwidth.  I’m in the first segment covering devices (imagine that!)  

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Killer Question #8: Could you standardize a custom product?