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How much mobile technology in our lives is enough?

How much mobile technology in our lives is "enough"? And what's an optimal mix?

I define "mobile" as any electronic device connected through a cellular radio or wifi link. 

We as technology users have a great challenge before us to choose the right physical and digital components of mobile technology. It's a daunting task to not only choose from a huge variety of global options, but then manage the overhead of maintaining and becoming proficient with them. 

In my opinion, the endless consumption of 'technology', just for the sake of it, is a losing proposition for humans. 

Which philosophies must technology companies and consumers adopt to find the right balance of value and reward and help safely guide them towards impact (and happiness)? How do we put mobile technology to work for us rather than the other way around? 

Please submit your answers here. Thank you for your thoughts on the subject.

Post Mortem: Six Items or Less

What a week, and what a month! What many of us, including the founders, thought was going to be a cute little experiment, has morphed into somewhat of a international 'fashionation'. Who knows where any type of fascination may lead?

First off, I wanted to warmly congratulate and thank the SIoL founders, Heidi and Tamsin, for their thoughtfulness and time in making this all a reality.  It's one thing to come up with ideas, it's entirely another to take it to the house. Very. Well. Done!

And the community... What a cool bunch of guys and gals from around the world! It's been real fun getting to know you all. Such articulate thinkers and writers. Let's stay in touch and discover new ways to fight the good fight.

The last few days have been a lot of fun for me personally. Seeing all the publicity that the 'experiment' has received and the thinking that it has stirred up is precious in my world.  Nearly a dozen frog designers stopped by my desk on Friday to voice their thoughts and ideas around SIoL, the concept of 'dressing ourselves', and how today's clothing industry often does a poor job in guiding us to make the right decisions. Reading the scores of insightful comments from the NYT article and other articles that covered SIoL around the web, it's clear how emotional and electric the subject is to people of all types. In my business -- the business of innovation and fostering positive behavioral change -- this is a unique opportunity to apply passion to a collaborative process that  ultimately defines new concepts to drive compelling improvements in the way the fashion industry designs, manufactures, markets, and sells clothing to the masses.

In short, I could not have hoped for a better outcome when I signed up a little over a month ago.

So, building from my mid-term report, here are my final observations, quips, and takeaways from the SIoL experiment extraordinaire:

- As I observed in Week one my belief is that one's 'total public presentation' is largely made up of a combination of clothing, skin, and attitude. Of the three, I am more convinced than ever that clothing is the least important to spend time precious thinking about and optimizing.

- Nobody really cares what you wear unless it negatively effects work performance or visually offends. So just cover those two areas without fail, and wear whatever makes you effin' happy!

- You don't necessarily need to dress for the job (or social status) you want, but you sure as hell need to present yourself appropriately (see point #1 above) for the task at hand.

- There's only about 12 or so garments in my closest I would consider wearing now. I will be making a massive donation to Good Will next week. Then I can reconstruct very carefully. Brands are officially on notice.

- I am scared to death to go shopping and have no real desire to buy anything right now. I have less of an affinity for brands now and more of an expectation that designers need to get to know me better before they try to sell me clothing (or anything for that matter). Also, I won't be buying anything online, sight unseen (and untouched) anymore (sorry Rue La La, Guilt Man, etc.).

- I notice what everyone else is wearing far more than before. I try not to judge them for it, but often think about why they chose the brands, the garment, the color, the fit - why?

- I am now hyper-aware of my 'total' presentation to people and make better eye contact and communicate better. I think this is a byproduct of wanting to make a more memorable impression from the inside rather than outside.

- I rethinking my workout regiment to be more of a "sweat once per day" consistent routine rather than "when I can find time".  Fitness always has and will always need to be a big part of who I am.

- Grooming is a key part of presentation. No amount of clothing or brands can hide lackluster grooming habits.

- I take better care of my clothes now. If you want them to last and look good for the long term, then you have to handle them with care (washing, hanging, folding, eating, etc.).

- I haven't yet defined the 'uniform' I hoped to suss out of the experiment. I feel that I need to learn more about fabrics, cuts, mfg. process, colors, materials, and other key data before I'm able to make an educated decision there.

- My wife no longer thinks I'm nuts.

Innovative capabilities of the Kindle 2

Since the Scoble's, Engadget's and Gizmodo's of the digital world do a far better job than I reviewing new CE products and gizmos, I will spare you any in-depth, visual analysis of the Kindle 2. 

Instead, I would like to highlight what I appreciate most about this product and the key capabilities that make this a winning device in my digital arsenal.

Capabilities, not features and engineering specs, are why I get excited about and buy digital devices. Not surprisingly, the most wildly successful products are the ones that truly deliver powerful new capabilities and experiences. 

For instance, the iPhone brought us robust, desktop-like Internet browsing on a mobile device. The Nintendo Wii delivered a video game experience that the entire family could enjoy. Tivo gave us the ability to never miss our favorite TV shows. Facebook reintroduced us to our most precious past friends and remote family members. 

In all of these cases, innovative new capabilities were presented to consumers that created exponential affiliated possibilities for more- a capabilities platform- so to speak.

When I was with Opera Software in Oslo, right after the turn of the new Millennium, one of the features I passionately pushed for in the desktop browser was the capability to effectively capture, log and 'take with you' those critical nuggets of information that are read and viewed in the process of browsing the Internet. I was frustrated that I was spending an obscene amount of time on the web and, other than a swath of bookmarks, quickly forgot the vast majority of what I discovered and was meaningful to me. 

Sadly, we were only able to deliver a feature called 'Opera Notes'. While this feature brought us closer to the vision of never leaving behind the treasures of the web, it missed the opportunity to create an entirely new capability for web browser users.

So this brings me back to the Kindle 2. Amazon has done a tremendous job vastly improving a first generation product and, in my opinion, delivering amazing new capabilities around electronic reading (e-reading). 

After using the product now for one week, I firmly believe that Amazon has developed a product that will revolutionize e-reading with the following three key new capabilities:

• One-handed reading. The Kindle 2 is thin, light and well designed to be held with a few fingers on one hand, just like a conventional book. This more closely mimics how we read paper books and makes it feel less like a device and more like something in print. Simply put, the superior industrial design of this device is a game changer.

• Create notes and highlights.  This is the single biggest reason I took the plunge for the Kindle. Like the promise of 'Opera Notes', this capability allows users to either contextually add personal commentary to the text or highlight and save a section of the text. This is a very powerful way to quickly capture or accentuate something profound, interesting or valuable without derailing the reading experience. Best of all, once the book, magazine or newspaper piece is finished, the reader is left with the most important nuggets of information that can be reused, digitally in print, or verbally. To me, it's a capability to extract greater practical value from what you read. Huge!

• Text-to-Speech. Wow, I was blown away by just how cool this capability improves my ability to follow the story and 'hear' each word. I found myself both reading, thinking, and hearing each word and that helped me maximize the detail that the author has labored to present. It was also handy when reading in an area with ambient noise as the headphones and speech effectively blocked out that 'noise' and allowed me to concentrate on my e-book. Even though text-to-speech may not be enabled with all books and the technology itself still needs improvement, it's a capability that makes the Kindle 2 truly shine as an e-reader.

There are many other wonderful reasons to use the Kindle 2 and countless ways that it will continue to evolve as an e-reader. I am officially on the bandwagon and look forward to discovering more capabilities that make this such an effective and fulfilling way to enjoy books, magazines, newspapers and blogs of all kinds. 

Congratulations to the talented people at Amazon's Lab 126 division for bringing us an innovative and capable product that will change the way we discover, buy, read, and enjoy books forever. They deserve all the credit in the world for making a good product great and setting themselves up for a very bright future.

 

Passion is the fuel for innovation

Passion is the fuel for Innovation

Insight is the passport

Invention is the transport

Impact is the destination

dgk