One big, mashed-up, virtualized, deconstructed mundo

Mash ups

At Prive last night they played a unexpectedly fabulous mash-up of Journey's "Don't Stop Believing" and Michael Jackson's "Beat It." Up until yesterday "mash-up" conjured for me images of Go Home Productions and Frank's on-line CBC Kids' project The Outlet which let's kids add to CBC video. I highly exposing children to the wonderful work the CBC kids group is doing with on-line content.

We learned that mash ups, like a Kinder surprise, add value by combining multiple web sites in one location (or by combining mixed media). Mash ups, lead by the Web Services revolution, do your heavy lifting - rather than creating your own breadcrumb trail of sites (wikipedia to google to zillow.com to zoominfo.com), mash ups consolidate related information into a single location. In the case of mash ups for personal information, contentious privacy issues are raised (I refer you to Sheerin's point of view and provide a link to the Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic.)

Amazon.com presents a case to watch on a company "opening up the store" - deconstructing and outsourcing their technology to individuals to set up mini, specialized storefronts to sell Amazon inventory on commission. Why? It allows for broader coverage (take the Finnish Bookstore example), lends micro credibility, and is giving them the chance to take a run at eBay. Risks are mitigated by agreements and the ability of Amazon to pull the plug on someone's business.

Will you dare to carve up and farm out pieces of your business? It's a blue ocean few have entered. Keep an eye out for it.

Virtual Worlds

Who ever would have guessed that a World of Warcraft Widow would have seen her nemesis appear in an MBA class? In fairness, Frank's WoW ambitions distracted him from pestering his hard-working MBA roommate (so WoW has its benefits), and he made level 60 in seemingly good time.

So virtual worlds, eh? An alternate universe to explore marketing, ecommerce, customer research with little overhead. An opportunity for Four Seasons within Second Life? Maybe to recruit, design room mockups, showcase new properties? Unlikely. Where's the policing, where's the brand management - are our target audience really lurking in Second Life? Probably not yet. Would you find the right type of employee - social, tactile "people-people" - in a virtual world? Hard to imagine. There's also the consideration of fulfillment of customer demand and preferences - just because buy the bling bling in Second Life will that translate to the real world? It may just be enough to fulfill desires in the alternate universe.

That said, one thing the class has taught - be careful when you naysay...

And finally, a note about process

You think the product is cool? Reconsider the impact the product (e.g. digital cameras) has on the process (photography).

The river flows both ways - how does the disruptive technology impact the larger process? Look at the larger process - how much value is added/detracted from current iterations? By modifying the process, how can you create value for customers and yourself?