Making A Difference…

I must say I’m impressed with the new Surface from Microsoft, the iTouch table (apparently microsoft didn’t build it from scratch, but rather bought it from an inventor) … It’s a computer disguised as a table, and you interact with it via its surface. It has a touch screen interface, and it can interact with objects on the table. It can do….. well just watch the videos:

Promotional videos

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rP5y7yp06n0]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cog8b8ojji0]

Actual Live Demo

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yeS09UenMTo]

Here it is once again, all wrapped up with cool music to make you beg for it for christmas…

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vj4YUhH0M68]
For all of you microsoft basher out there, you’d enjoy this one:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZrr7AZ9nCY]

On the downside, imagine what it will do to your back after hours interacting with the table… chiropractor’s services is bundled with every purchase of microsoft surface..

Everything on the web is expected to be free of charge. Google offers their products for free. Most other things are free as well. Is this a good thing ?

I used to think it’s a good thing since I don’t have to shell out huge sums of money and I can get all these nifty services. That is until you try to build a business on the web. Guess what ? Whatever you are offering is expected to be free as well… Where do you get your revenue from ? Is advertising the only source of revenue that is available for services offered on the web ?

I suppose this can be good if you view it from the perspective that it forces you, as the provider of service, to tap into your creative brains and come up with breakthrough business models.

What types of breakthrough business models do you think is available for services on the web ?

Comments welcome !

I’ve just heard this very good comparison to get you thinking about whether your company’s productivity needs improving.

Let’s take a “tukang bakso” here in Jakarta. Lets say he charges Rp. 5000 per bowl and lets say he can sell about 200 bowls a day. At the end of the day he will have generated Rp 1 million. So one tukang bakso generates Rp. 1 million per day.

Now if you take your company’s revenue, divided by the number of employees, and divided again by 365, you will get how much each person in your company generates on average. Does this number measure up to what the tukang bakso can generate ? If your company generates Rp 1 million per day per person, then your company’s productivity is the same as the tukang bakso. However, the tukang bakso probably doesn’t even have a complete high school education, whereas your employees most likely have bachelors or masters degree. Shouldn’t the productivitybe way higher ?

To complicate matters you can also divide your equity by the number of employees, to get the equity that each person gets per year.
Lets say the tukang bakso can start his business with Rp. 10 million. This means that with Rp. 10 million he is able to generate Rp. 1 million every day.
How much equity does each person need in your company to generate how much revenue per day ?  Does it measure up to the tukang bakso’s numbers ?

Can you beat the tukang bakso’s productivty ? Or maybe you should just start your own bakso enterprise…

Have you ever wondered whether companies that are doing CSR are really doing it sincerely or merely as a marketing ploy ? How can you tell the difference ? Does it differ by intent alone ?

You may start doing CSR because you think that it’s the right thing to do: you get benefit from society, and you give back to society.  But does it really matter if the public knows what you have done ? It shouldn’t matter whether or not the public knows about it, because it’s the right thing to do!

However, you may start thinking: well, okay, maybe I’m sincere, but the public doesn’t know that I am and what I have done for the community. One day I get attacked by a negative campaign.  Will it hurt me me and my company then that the public doesn’t have a balanced view of my company ?

Dilemma, dilemma….

Mobile Monday Indonesia chapter was launched yesterday, on Tuesday (Not Monday?) , Dec 4, 2007 at the JW Marriott. It was an all day event starting at 9:30am all the way until about 8:00pm,

divided into three sessions.
Representatives from several other chapters of Mobile Monday in the Asia Pacific region were present, as well as Jari Tammisto, the CEO of Mobile Monday Global.

The following is taken from the Mobile Monday Indonesia Website:

Mobile Monday is a global community of mobile industry visionaries, developers and influentials fostering cooperation and cross-border business development through virtual and live networking events to share ideas, best practices and trends from global markets.

Mobile Monday has the following objectives:

• To encourage innovation within the mobile sector.
• To facilitate networking between small and large companies, and between local and foreign.
• To help local companies effectively participate in international initiatives through the import and export of visions, concepts, technologies, know-how and best practices.
• To present innovative visions, trends, studies and forecasts from the mobile marketplace.
• To facilitate and create partnerships.
• To contribute to the education of the broader public through its publications, online presence and media partnerships.

Let’s hope that all of us can achieve these dreams through Mobile Monday Indonesia…

Surfing the web from your living room ?  There were several solutions before for this and they were all too cumbersome or didn’t quite work as well.  Well, I stumbled onto a blog by robert scoble about hooking up his mac mini to his TV and having a much better living room experience.  Why didn’t I think of that ?

What a sweet setup with the wireless keyboard and mouse..

For other 1001 ways of using your mac mini you can visit 123macmini.com . The image above is courtesy of 123macmini.com

There are plenty of smart people in Jakarta and there are new things popping up on the web all the time. Hey, we can have our own silicon valley in jakarta pretty soon…

One new application that I just discovered, strangely enough in a google ad inside of plaxo, is petaku.com. Cool new app that allows us to build a directory of places and events in Jakarta ourselves.

Congratulations !!

Just can’t resist posting this one up..

Who\’s The Leader Of China

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zfwRb_XKFvA]