Outside Innovation

Can IBM Be a Major Player in the Apple Enterprise Ecosystem?

As I mentioned last week, in my post, “Enterprise Customers Forged the Apple/IBM Ecosystem,” what tickled me about the exclusive worldwide partnership announced by IBM and Apple on 7/15/14 was that it was a great example of IBM’s running around in front of the customer parade. Enterprise customers—led by their CEOs, sales execs, and top-earning rainmakers—had already voted with their proverbial feet and adopted Apple iPads and iPhones as their devices of choice for getting work done on the go. That meant that their IT organizations had to adapt by accommodating Apple devices and apps, and they did. Soon, an entire ecosystem of third-party tools and services sprang up to help enterprise IT professionals manage iDevices, support them, develop apps for them, and deliver back-end enterprise data and applications securely to employees. Apple helped primarily by getting out of the way. That evolution began four years ago, shortly after the introduction of the iPad. Apple supported these activities with its iOS Developer Enterprise Program, which allowed corporations to develop apps for their own institutional use and not have to publish them in the Apple App Store.

Now, IBM has made a dramatic entrance into this ecosystem—with four offerings specifically targeted for their many enterprise accounts: IBM MobileFirst for iOS, IBM MobileFirst Platforms for iOS, AppleCare for Enterprise, and MobileFirst supply and management. The first two offerings are targeted for application developers and are iOS-specific instantiations of IBM’s MobileFirst offerings, which we described in IBM’s MobileFirst “Customer Cloud” Strategy, in late March. Essentially, this is a cloud-based development platform that is designed to help enterprise app developers develop, deploy, secure, and integrate corporate apps into their (IBM and other ERP) back-end systems and services. IBM has developed 100+ starter kit apps for over 10 vertical industries.

Apple’s iCloud: Misunderstood and Underrated

Apple’s iCloud service won’t formally debut until the Fall of 2011, yet it has attracted many criticisms. We think that Apple’s iCloud actually raises the customer experience bar, yet again. With iCloud, Apple is redefining the experience of mobile offline and online computing by automagically synching and backing up all of your applications, files, and preferences across devices. If you lose your phone or your computer dies, you’ll be able to restore everything to exactly the way it was before. If you take a picture on one device, it will magically appear in your photo library on all your other devices. If you are working on a document or a spreadsheet on your iPad, it will magically appear with your cursor in the same spot on your MacBook. And, if you don’t have connectivity, you can keep on working, using your applications, and enjoying your music, etc. until you’re able to re-synch.

Apple uses its “cloud” service with tight integration into its operating systems to deliver this seamless peripatetic computing experience. Application developers who want their applications to conform to that experience will need to write to a new set of application programming interfaces (APIs). If developers want their applications to behave consistently across other operating system platforms and ecosystems (e.g., Windows, RIM, Android, and so on), they’ll need to do more work in order to provide an equivalent cross-platform seamless experience.

Today, there are a number of applications that work really well across platforms (RIM Blackberry, iPad, Mac, PC, Android, etc.), such as Amazon’s Kindle ebook reader, Evernote for capturing, tagging, and annotating information, and, of course, almost all Web-based apps, like Facebook, Gmail, Google apps, and so on. They all manage to deliver good synchronization across mobile apps and across platforms.

The gauntlet that Apple is throwing down with its seamless online/offline/mobile experience brought to you via iCloud is to provide a single environment that keeps all your applications, data, and preferences synched up. That’s going to be a tough act to follow.

 Why Apple's iCloud Service Will Be Successful
iCloud Service Provides Much-Needed Seamless Synchronization of Digital Media and Applications
By Patricia B. Seybold, CEO & Sr. Consultant, Patricia Seybold Group, June 30, 2011

 

Really Happy with the Way "my" Latest Book Turned Out!

Just got the most recent printed copies of my latest oeuvre: It Takes a Child to Raise a Village. I really like the way they turned out! Tikatok did a great job of producing them for me! I've spent a happy morning shipping out copies to all who ordered copies for the holidays! It's not too late!

How did this book come to be? I spent a week on campus with these girls 11-18 years old. I had 45 minutes with each class (it was the middle of their exam period!). I asked them to write short essays and/or draw pictures about their "Back Home Projects." I handed out color sharpies for the drawings. They worked in class while I egged them on. Then, I disappeared for 6 months. Came back in October with copies of the finished book. The girls were blown away!! They didn't think I really would DO anything with their work!

We held a school assembly where they told their stories on video (coming soon!). And sent them home (not a simple thing, when you live miles away on dirt roads!) with permission slips for their parents/guardians to sign, so that we could publish their photos as well as their writing and artwork.

They are so PROUD of this book! I am so proud of them! These girls are truly transforming the lives of the people in their villages. They are the future hope of Africa!

Apple’s Misstep Keeps Kids from Showcasing Their Innovations on iPhone

Oops. Apple goofed.

Last week, Apple did something that created outrage among educators and parents—one of their most important customer segments.

Apple banned the use of a $3.95 iPhone app called Scratch Viewer. Scratch Viewer would have let teachers, parents, and young kids view the 1 million applications that young kids all over the globe have created over the last three years using Scratch.

Scratch is a kid-friendly free programming environment which was developed at the Lifelong Kindergarten Group at the MIT Media Lab, based on the work of Seymour Papert and Alan Kay. Mitchel Resnick, the director of the Lifelong Kindergarten Group at MIT, had this to say to reporters and on the Scratch blog:

“We're disappointed that Apple decided not to allow a Scratch player on the iPhone or iPad (as part of Apple's policy against apps that interpret or execute code). As we see it, there is nothing more important than empowering the next generation of kids to design, create, and express themselves with new media technologies. That's the idea behind Scratch. Kids around the world are using Scratch to program their own interactive stories, games, animations, and simulations with Scratch—and sharing their creations with one another online. In the process, kids learn to think creatively, reason systematically, and work collaboratively. Since the launch of Scratch in 2007, kids have shared nearly 1 million projects on the Scratch website. We hope that Apple will reconsider its policies so that more kids can experience the joys of creating and sharing with Scratch. (By the way, the Scratch player for the iPhone was created by a third party, not by our group at the MIT Media Lab. But our group is planning to make Scratch authoring tools for the iPad in the future, and we hope Apple will allow us....)”

Faithful Outside Innovation followers will recognize Mitch Resnick as one of the heroes in the LEGO Mindstorms’ NXT story. Mitch has been engaging kids as co-inventors at MIT since the early 1980s. He and Steve Ocko were the grad students who connected computers to LEGOs so that young kids could use Seymour Papert’s LOGO language to make their LEGO creations come alive.

Who Says Kids Can't Make a Difference?

Girls and womens' empowerment story that I submitted (#436)  to Nicholas Kristof's "Half the Sky" contest

Sanyu Provia’s description of her experience as a student at the URDT Girls’ School in rural, western Uganda. Sanyu’s schoolmates are girls from the ages of 12 to 18 years old, who come from low income rural families. Sanyu applied to be admitted to the boarding school, did well on the interview, and has been not only receiving an education in the 3R’s, but also in sanitation, nutrition, organic farming, carpentry, solar technology and visionary leadership. While in school, she has helped her family improve their income. She describes how this works:

"· The backhome projects have helped to increase our income. Our family got involved in sugar cane growing and out this we were able to buy a motorcycle (TVS); thanks to URDT.

· Backhome projects have improved our sanitation and health standards through improvements on our house, constructing a good drying rack, and a good birth room.

· We as family members we have managed to get school fees for our sisters who are in secondary schools to proceed with their education.

· Back home projects have helped my family to improve on nutrition, which has been done through planting different vegetable gardens and rearing some animals like pigs and goats.

· They have helped me to improve on the co-operation in family through working together to earn a living as a family.

· Back Home projects have helped me to increase on the relationships with our neighbours. This has been done through sharing with them what we have as they also get attracted and take these seeds to their families to plant them.

· I have also realized that the back home projects have helped me to have a shared vision with my family members. This is through bringing my suggestion towards our family as they agree after talking about it."

Young Girls Improve their Families' Income in Africa

Another inspiring story submitted (#434)  to Nicholas Kristof's "Half the Sky" contest. 

Here’s an example of 12-to 18 year old girls in Uganda who are increasing their families’ income through their schools’ projects. Most families expect kids to become productive members of society AFTER they graduate from school. At the Uganda Rural Development and Training (URDT) Programme’s Girls’ School, 240 girls increase their families’ incomes every year by training, organizing and inspiring their family members. Here’s one of their stories:

Namata Eva, a student at the URDT (URDT.net) Girls’ School, has witnessed changes at her home because of sustainable income- generating Back Home Project and she had this to share:

“Back Home projects are series of activities we do at home as we have learnt them at school. They are family projects because every member has a role to play in implementing these projects.

Earlier, our family back home projects were growing pineapples, sugar canes, beans, maize and other traditional crops. However, in 2007/2008 we were introduced to organic farming for income generation with a specific focus on Sesame and chillies. Our family chose to grow Sesame but did not abandon the pineapples.

Through back home projects, we have built a permanent house and can afford to save at least four thousand (4,000) per month through a revolving SACCO fund. We make other savings, pay school fees for other children in the family, and provide them with the necessary school requirement – this was not the case before I joined the URDT Girls school. The family is now proud of this saving culture because we meet all our needs without straining so much.

Through back home projects, we can afford a balanced diet because we grow a variety of crops including vegetables. Before these trainings, we used to depend on cassava as our daily meal. In brief I can say that the back home projects have become a backbone of our rural livelihood”.

Submitted by Alida Bakema, Girls' School Curriculum Development

A Lifeline

by Susan Warshauer, Vice Chancellor of the African Rural University (at Uganda Rural Development and Training) -- submitted (#405)  to Nicholas Kristof's "Half the Sky" contest. 

I look up and Odembos, the Human Rights Officer at URDT, is standing in my office door. After a few minutes of chatting, Odembos explains that he has a sad story to tell me. He hands me a photo of a very little girl talking into the microphone at KKCR, the community radio station run by URDT. He tells me she is 8 years old; she looks about 5 or 6.

Apparently, the little girl’s Mother moved away and her Father began abusing her. Although her Father said he would kill her if she told anyone, she told her Aunt. Her Aunt began treating the injuries she sustained from the abuse but would do nothing about stopping it. Finally, this tiny, little girl went to the church in her village. She sat still and waited until everyone finished praying, then told them she wanted to see the Human Rights Officer she had heard on the radio. She said she needed his help and explained what was happening. The good people at her church raised the money necessary to transport her to URDT. While they were making the arrangements, the little girl’s Father came looking for her. The members of the church told him that she was at URDT already.

When the little girl got to URDT she told her whole story to Odembos. He worked with her over several days, getting her lodging and food in the URDT Girls’ School. Odembos kept reassuring her that she was now safe. He went to the police, they investigated, and the Aunt and others from the village came forward. There was more than enough evidence to arrest the man.

The photograph Odembos had just handed me was taken when the little girl decided she would go on the radio to talk about what had happened to her so other children would know that they too could get help from URDT.

For more than 20 years, Uganda Rural Development and Training Programme (URDT) has helped people in rural, western Uganda create better lives for themselves. Besides KKCR, which has over 2 million listeners, and the Human Rights Office, URDT offers many other services. There are primary and secondary schools for girls that use a two-generation approach involving the students’ families in training and back-home projects. URDT runs a Technical Institute for young men and women helping them create jobs for themselves and others, a Land Rights Office, an HIV/Aids Programme, a demonstration organic farm and farmer training, and African Rural University (ARU) for women, focused on creating Rural Transformation Specialists, where I work. http://www.urdt.net

— Susan Warshauer

It Takes an ARU Student to Change a Village!

 Great story by Matt Clark in the Christian Science Monitor on July 5, 2009 about "my" African Rural University for Women (ARU) in Uganda with wonderful photos by Mary Knox Merrill. 

Here, Charlotte Mbaine, who just completed her third year at the University, is being thanked by one of the women in the Village where she did her "senior project"-- spending one month helping villagers articulate their Visions and begin to achieve them by discovering and using their own resources and talents. Check out the full story and video African Academy Empowers Youths.

Photo: Mary Knox Merrill, Christian Science Monitor

I'll be heading back to Uganda for a visit with these recent grads in early November. These young women went to ARU to become rural Community Transformation Specialists, rather than to head to Kampala to work in business. They are raising the economic productivity of each village they work with. We are seeking funding to provide them with paid internships, laptops, Internet access, cell phone minutes, and solar energy starter kits. They come to each village with knowledge of local agricultural techniques, brick-making, sanitation, road-building, and visionary leadership. They inspire the villagers to articulate their own visions, to pool their talents and resources and to achieve their visions. Read more about this innovative program for customer-led innovation.

Expect a Sea Change in Application and Information Architectures

Intersecting waves of technology are converging: Cloud computing, massive parallel processing, distributed file systems like Hadoop, dynamic provisioning to the cloud, embedded computing, open mobile platforms and APIs, and semantic publishing, to cite just a few. Patty’s Pioneers (technology architects) have been talking recently about how these phenomena will profoundly change the way we do business, use computers and address problems. We already have the ability to send huge volumes of information to the compute cloud to perform long-running, compute-intensive pattern detection. Google works that way. The genome project and many other scientific endeavors are enabled by this capability. You can solve BIG problems. You can offload bursty, compute-intensive applications. You can enable new capabilities like high-frequency trading.

Information, data types, and file formats are changing too. Scientific and technical data isn’t always organized in relational databases or spreadsheets. There are huge flat files, analog files, arrays, sequences, 3D models, and a myriad of data types and patterns that most business IT was never designed to address. We are sensing and detecting real-time changes in everything from weather to ocean pH. We perform chemical analyses, create molecular models, and find interrelationships among everything. We have massive amounts of genetic sequence data, with genome browsers, model organism databases, molecule- or process-specific databases.

Information that we want to share and have customers find and use is increasingly being tagged to accelerate semantic processing. Many of Patty’s Visionaries (customer-centric e-business leaders) have already embarked on large semantic tagging projects. They are convinced that, in their fields of endeavor, important concepts need to pop out of the sea of words and data so that these concepts can be linked to the appropriate behaviors and services. A company name came be linked to news, financial data, personnel information, products, patents, geography, partners, and customers. A chemical formula or a gene sequence can be linked, viewed, and acted upon with a staggering array of tools.

This next generation of distributed computing and pattern matching will unleash a new economy – with new opportunities for value creation.

As I contemplate the tremendous and revolutionary changes that will hit all of our businesses as a result of the new ways in which we can now detect patterns and process information, I am grateful for the magic of the human brain. Our intuition and emotions combine with our sense-making and pattern matching to make magical leaps across disciplines.

This next generation of computing architectures is upon us. It’s time to take the plunge. Say goodbye to Microsoft Word, say hello to N-dimensional arrays and patterns. Say goodbye to PDAs and laptops. Say hello to holograms you can gesture through.

How Customer-Centric Visionaries Make Information Valuable

Last week I hosted two very rich customer gatherings: the semiannual meetings of my Pioneers’ and Visionaries’ groups. The tradition in these meetings is one of “show and tell”—clients share what they’ve been working on and seek advice from their peers. There are so many great “aha!s” that came out of both meetings, I’ll be digesting and summarizing the take-aways over the next several weeks.

“Documents” Have Become Interactive Landing Pages

Visionaries don’t present information in the form of flat online documents or lock information up in PDFs (although they make it easy to download and print PDFs). They provide actionable, interactive information in small bite-size chunks. Their “Document 2.0’s” include links to curated, authoritative, structured data, such as:

• Expert ratings
• 3D Molecular models or chemical formulas
• Sortable parameters to help in decision-making
• Rich interactive imagery
• Bills of material with links to product details
• Custom-configured products they can tweak
• Comments and discussions with experts