Simple,Useful,inexpensive, eco-friendly,sustainable
Posted on | September 2, 2010 | 1 Comment
Sri Lanka, what comes to mind when you think of this country?
Politics, poverty, tea, home of a great sci fi author, all of these I am sure.
What about a country that is home to one of the best home tool secrets?
Sri Lankans have for many many years been creating some of the most useful mutli purpose brooms on the planet!
And what makes these brooms a bonus is they use excess wood and coconut palm spines to create an eco-friendly and sustainable product.
Yes it looks like something out of Harry Potter.
This broom is great for raking leaves, moving snow or sand and even keeping ducks walking in a gaggle!
Who would have thought that one of Sri Lanka’s best kept secrets is the broom.
Did I mention that these things sell in country for less than $5 American!
If you can get one of these you really need one or maybe 3!
Simple Ideas Clean Up!
Posted on | September 1, 2010 | No Comments
How often do you find yourself saying, “why didn’t I think of that?”
Well here is a great one that landed at my feet, literally, from Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, Canada.
The foot turtle.
How often do you carry something from the sink in the kitchen and drop a bit of water on the floor? Often!
So what do you do? Rub up the mess with a sock or better yet grab a drying cloth and scrape it across the floor!
What if you had a towel that lived on the floor and with your food could mop up any little water mess on the floor?
Here it is that little piece of low tech innovation that solves a bunch of kitchen cleaning issues!
The top is very fun and the bottom is a terry cloth towel!
Who comes up with these ideas?
Someone who is looking and asking, “why not!”
WOW working & WOW failing
Posted on | August 30, 2010 | No Comments
8 weeks on the road this summer I want to call my vacation, “In Search of WOW.”
It was amusing to see so many organisations from car rental companies to souvenir shops trying to cash in on the idea of providing a beyond expectation experience or WOW.
At times I actually wondered if Tom Peters had air dropped his library of books onto major tourist destinations.
What becomes very clear when I think back on my summer, in search of WOW, is that many organisations simply do not understand the DNA of WOW.
Take Royal Caribbean Cruises International as an example.
The Liberty of the Seas is an amazing cruise ship, home to a huge climbing wall, ice rink and a flowrider! If you look at stuff there is no question WOW is in the making, BUT WOW is more than stuff it is also the culmination of many subtle pieces such as employee attitude, general atmosphere and more. The funny thing about WOW is those little things become very significant when they are added to the larger experience.
So what knocked Royal Caribbean from the WOW podium? Melamine plates in the general eating area. Really! The sound of cutlery on glass, the way sauces pool and flow on a glass plate, the feel of a glass plate in hand are all pieces of the WOW puzzle. Flatware and china all make the difference in an eating experience and the calculus of melamine, staff, ship,entertainment and activities clearly said to me that Royal Caribbean International has not quite grasped what WOW is all about.
Lesson #12
Don’t throw the kitchen sink at WOW think of the details.
Chipotle Mexican Grill in NYC has WOW all figured out.
Chipotle is all about food with integrity!
Chipotle is fast food, no tables, paper and a cafeteria style service area.
But the food is good, the service is honest and the intention is genuine.
Lineup, music and design all come together to make it work and WOW.
Chipotle is WOW and I am not even sure they are looking to be.
Lesson #21
Don’t try to be WOW just do your best at what you do and WOW will follow.
WOW is out there, be honest with yourself and what you do and WOW will follow!
But try too hard to manufacture WOW and it will bite you and leave a bad taste in your customers mouth.
Tags: caribbean > chipotle > grill > international > mexican > royal > WOW
The New Face of Media-thinking.
Posted on | June 26, 2010 | 1 Comment
TEDxDubai did many things and one of the most important things was give the UAE permission to push its media bar in a totally different direction.
Leo Laporte made a wonderful daring presentation to TEDxDubai.
The media is changing but are we ready?
Do we believe the media environment is really changing?
Call our media environment converging, diverging, clouding,WEB2.0 but the reality is a whole new playing field is before us like it or not.
The problem is we media educators need to put our past on the shelf and go boldly where nobody has gone before!
The problem is it is easier said than done.
Leo Laporte spoke at TEDxDubai 2009 and offered an invitation to UAE media educators and students, all of us really, to go boldly into the media environment where we have never gone before.
Leo Laporte’s invitation, dare, to embrace the new media environment.
What will you do?
Tags: laporte > leo > media > new > Technology > tedx > tedxdubai
Journalism the new face
Posted on | June 23, 2010 | 1 Comment
A conversation with Abbas Al Lawati about his time on the Freedom Floatilla.
Abbas Al Lawati is the Gulf News reporter from Dubai who was on the Freedom Floatilla as it steamed towards Gaza.
What is the role of the reporter?
To report?
To be an observer?
To tell a story?
Abbas found himself in the not too uncommon situation of not only reporting on a story but becoming a part of that story.
At one point it was his BlackBerry that allowed him to continue to file his reports as he saw people die around him.
Where do we draw the lines between objectivity and subjectivity in journalism?
How do we deal with emotion?
Can we realistically expect journalists to compartmentalize their emotions? Do we even want the journalist to be an emotion free recorder of what is happening around them.
Abbas tells an interesting story of his time on the Freedom Floatilla as he navigated between reporting on and being the news.
A conversation with Abbas Al Lawati about his time on the Freedom Floatilla.
The New Way to Present Academia
Posted on | June 23, 2010 | No Comments
It is time to modernize the way we academics present the fruit of what we do in the Ivory Tower.
Lets face it we academics are without doubt experts in not only HOW teaching and learning takes place and is disseminated today but we are also experts in our own particular fields of study.
So why when it comes to making our knowledge available to the world to we tend to jump at obscure journals and even more obscure niche academic conferences?
My theory is we are simply following the old academic protocol.
Research to Publish to Present with little to no thought being given to the HOW and WHO or even WHERE of the process.
Well there is an alternative and that alternative is the TED model.
The scary thing is so many academics watch TEDTalks but so few actually try to do their own work and presentations in that format, right down to the audio/video and show.
Some might say that the TED format dilutes the content of a presentation, I don’t buy it.
Here is the clip talking about TEDCannes and there is nothing light about the content.
It is time for the academic world to awaken to the possibility before it and not stay crouched behind a podium in a room tucked away on an obscure University campus and jump feet first onto the world stage and the model for this is TED!
Idea Space… DIY!
Posted on | June 22, 2010 | No Comments
I love the idea of Idea Paint.
The 1st thing I love is the site.
When you go watch the upload counter and stop it to see the words!
00=limitations or zero limitations, very cool!
The second thing I like is the institutionalized idea of breaking the rules and thinking out loud all over the box, the box of your environment.
Idea paint is whiteboard paint that can be applied to any surface!
Imagine the ability to transform your office walls into idea space!
A hallway into idea space!
A floor into idea space!
Every surface becomes a creative tool! Institutionalized and encouraged use your environment to succeed.
Clever and cool!
An Education rethink?
Posted on | June 21, 2010 | No Comments
There is no better place to be than the UAE when it comes to rethinking how education can, should and might be delivered to meet the challenges the next generation will face.
Primary and secondary education is rapidly evolving in the UAE and trying to come to grips with the lessons from welfare states around the world as it crafts its own hybrid system.
One thing is for sure a complete hands off system does not work.
What if we retooled education from KG through University around the idea of significant interactions?
What if the issues of economy and society were encouraged to link and not sit alone?
What if we saw a vertical integration of KG through University education with partnerships on a global scale?
Of course this requires a true paradigm shift.
Dr. Chris Reynolds may be on to something as he talks about his vision of the education to come.
Tags: chris > Design > economy > Education > integration > reynolds > society
Just a Great Product
Posted on | June 17, 2010 | No Comments
I was at TED2009 where the first version of this bag was given out.
I love the commuter and don’t leave home without it, and I put a 17 inch machine into it!
Simply a great product!
What makes it great is the designers have thought not only about the look and feel but also about the utility of the product and it simply just works very very well.
Wandering off the Path.
Posted on | June 17, 2010 | 1 Comment
Students, professionals, education they all seem to be geared around the idea that we have some idea what we want to do and that we can study today for the path of tomorrow.
Over and over again I have told my students that what we learn at school is secondary to the process.
Sure there are some exceptions but they are not as glaring as you might think.
What is important in our education is that we learn to follow through, meet deadlines, dare, challenge and ultimately get the tools to know who to ask and how to ask for help and guidance when we need it.
Sure some may disagree but that disagreement is fueled more out of fear of a change in the way we deliver education than the reality of the suggestion.
Last night I spoke to Iman Ben Chaibah about the creation of Sail magazine.
What is interesting is that Iman studied computer science and works in the computer industry, NOT the field of communication and journalism.
Yes there is no question Iman is a journalist!
The point of all this is wandering off the path is what education should be all about, getting us to explore and follow our gut feelings no matter how far from what we are trained to do it is!
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