Collaborative Age | The Fourth Revolution Blog

Welcome to the Era of the Hardware Movement

The Hardware Movement – creating hardware in a decentralized, low risk and low series way, is starting to get some real grip. This post “The Long Tail of Hardware” exposes some latest thoughts on this topic.

self_replicating_printer — This printer is able to produce most of its own parts and replicate!

While funding for hardware startups does increase significantly, it has not yet reached the point where it becomes a global sensation and where former manufacturing institutions get in trouble from the competition. Still, 3D printing redefines our world quicker than we imagine. I have seen 3D printer in the offices of most of my engineering clients for prototyping. It seems that an ecosystem of garage hardware developers is developing. The tipping point could be close.

There are some legal implications of course, and open-source hardware is a concept that is maturing with a variety of licensing arrangements.

This movement needs to be watched as it may take the world by storm, although it might take a few additional years.

Why we Should Not Try to Understand the World Too Much

One of the most profound quotes I have stumbled upon recently is from Umberto Eco: “I have come to believe that the whole world is an enigma, a harmless enigma that is made terrible by our own mad attempt to interpret it as though it had an underlying truth.”

Isn’t that profound wisdom about living in a complex world? Because a complex world is by nature unpredictable, it is not useful to try to theorize what will happen or what lies below. Still, because of our pattern-seeking build, we tend to try to do so. While it is useful to do that at a small scale, it is ineffective to try to do it at a large scale.

Theorizing the world will never work. And it is becoming worst as the world becomes more complex every day, with increased interconnections between an increasing number of people.

Umberto Eco goes further by ascribing a lot of the harm around us to this attempt to theorize and make the world predictable. And indeed it is often this attempt that draws crowds to believe in certain things.

It is natural and reassuring to believe that the world is predictable and can be theorized. Unfortunately that’s impossible. This is scary and full of opportunities at the same time. Above all let’s not try to find the underlying truth, let’s let go and the world will be a better place.

How to Resist Patent Trolls (Video)

We have written several times on this blog on the patent troll phenomenon, these entities trying to make money by owning widely applicable patents and attacking normal companies for wrongdoing (links below).

This excellent TED video gives an excellent explanation of the phenomenon and what you should do if it happens to you.

It also reminds a great lesson of what to do when you are taken hostage by someone. Concentrate on your objective and don’t let yourself be impressed.

Follow this link if you can’t see the video.

Previous posts on patent trolls:

Hat tip to Tim Berry for the link

How to Overcome the Stockholm Syndrome of Traditional Employment

Following on our blog “What is so Awful About the Disappearance of Hierarchy?“, and the fact that many people feel attached to traditional hierarchical organizations as a kind of comfort anchor, I find that an interesting phenomenon to prompt thinking is the “Stockholm Syndrome”.

This psychological syndrome appears after hostage-taking situations, where the hostage might have developed a comfort feeling from small attentions the hostage taker might have had for him/ her. In spite of an overall terrible and violent picture of an hostage situation, it happens that a very strong emotional connection develops, where the hostage defends the hostage-taker. The hostage feels like the hostage-taker cares, whereas this is absolutely not the case.

It might be a stretch, but would it not be a similar case regarding the attachment of many people to traditional, hierarchical organizations? Employees are the first to complain loudly how they feel mistreated, poorly recognized, and how work is a burden; and at the same time, presented with alternative types of organization, they defend the traditional hierarchy because of the comfort provided and the small attentions given from time to time (gifts, bonuses and other recognition material).

We know when we are taken hostage in everyday life when we feel vulnerable, powerless and at the mercy of other people. Don’t let it happen to you even within normal employment: find your freedom space, including financially, and don’t feel at the mercy of your employer. And avoid absolutely the Stockholm syndrome!

How to Overcome the Struggles of Unstructured Collaborative Organizations

There has been lately some noise about the transformations of the organization behind Wikipedia, and in particular how the ecosystem of volunteers is changing dramatically, and not necessarily for the best – shrinking considerably, becoming more closed, more conservative and defensive of established positions.

An excellent article on the matter – although a bit long – appeared in the MIT technology review: ‘ The Decline of Wikipedia‘.

Wikipedia can be considered as an interesting experiment of unstructured organizations that will be increasingly typical of the Collaboration Age. And the way the Wikipedia foundation reacts to the challenge – by changing the software platform that supports this collaboration in a way that conforms to its goals and interests – is an interesting management response to this problem. Instead of dealing with people in the organization, they act on the very platform that supports their activity!

All in all, in spite of all the issues described in the recent studies on the Wikipedia phenomenon, it seems more that Wikipedia is maturing as an organization rather than a fundamental crisis. Faced with increased bureaucracy it needs to reinvent itself to achieve a stable and sustainable model. And it still needs, and will continuously need, a lot of editing as the cartoon on the left suggests!

Let’s continue to watch Wikipedia and how it faces its challenges to learn how to make the self-organizing communities of the Collaborative Age work better.

How to Implement and Use an Internal Social Network in Organizations

For those of you faithful followers of the Fourth Revolution, you will remember that one of the forces that pushed me in that direction was to consider how internal social networks could release the creativity and productivity in organizations.

spider web network — Where is your organization’s network?

Since 2010, the development of effective internal networks has been slower than I would have expected. Resistance to internal social networks has been stronger than expected. Professional communities tend to meet on public networks. Still, silently and in the background, it happens. And small and large companies that do implement them see a great difference in how they operate.

This excellent post on Social Media Explorer, ‘using an internal social network to solve real business problems‘, provides a good summary of what can be achieved with internal social networks. The entire piece is very interesting, I would just like to highlight this quote:

“Every company has a wealth of talent and knowledge internally that goes untapped. Just imagine for a second that employees were able to propose projects they want to work on and what talents they could bring to a cross-functional team.”

Indeed that would be a great business opportunity and would release organizations from the current great waste of talent.

When, at last, will you implement an internal social network to boost your business?

How to create disruption for billions in 18 months

Disruption happens ever more quickly. According to this excellent post on Asymco, Android is the third platform to reach 1 billion users.

Only that according to the graph, Android took 1.5 years to get there; Facebook took 3 years and Windows (two decades ago) probably something like 5 years.

1 billion user is planet-wide disruption. And today it only takes a few month for successful ecosystems to disrupt the planet and change our habits.

Do you remember the first version of the iPhone went on sale mid-2007? 6 years ago ONLY?

Food for thought.

From Blogger to Beauty Guru to Celebrity Businesswoman in 6 Years

August 2013 headlines: After six years of tutorials and millions of views, YouTube beauty guru Michelle Phan has launched her own 250-product line of makeup – backed by L’Oreal.

I am not particularly a fan or expert on makeup (!) but I found it to be a great story to show the power of the Fourth Revolution. Michelle is clearly passionate about makeup. After some blogging she started posting videos on Youtube in 2007. Obviously there was a need! She has today 769 million views and has 4.6 million subscribers! And what was a passion became a business. AT 23 years old L’Orelas backed up her video making. And at 26 years old L’Oreal backs her up for a personal line of makeup.

This great post on Mashable explains her story. Her secret recipe is story-telling. “Success is like a lightning bolt. It’ll strike you when you least expect it, and you just have to keep the momentum going” she says! This other post is also quite instructive about her career.

Coming from a humble background, with passion and having obviously fun, Michelle created what will soon be an empire. She created tremendous value for many people (for free). And most of her fans are at the other end of the planet, in Asia. And all thanks to the Fourth Revolution!

Have a look at the promotional Youtube movie for her product line which recounts her journey and where she thanks the community she created around her for giving her all the ideas that founded her success and her product. Still don’t believe in the Fourth Revolution?

More material: Michelle has also her own Wikipedia page, here is the link to her Youtube channel, and her website.

How the music industry transforms through the Fourth Revolution

I would like to share this excellent summary of the economics and of the transformations of the music industry in the last few years: Who killed the industry – an interactive explainer. It is a brilliant example of the transformation and of the questions raised by the Fourth Revolution.

music industry revenue per year — The music industry total revenue per year, by type of support

The interesting point is that from the point of view of the artists, it was pretty tough to earn any money in the previous setup. All the money was flowing to the industry.(“[in 2000, she estimated that if a band made an album, sold a million copies, went on tour, and made two music videos, the band might break even, but the record label would take home $6.6 million”!.., [and the band owns none of the work])

It seems there are more opportunities now to be heard, to connect with fans, and to make a living. However, the new forms of music streaming seem once again to forget to compensate the musicians!

In any case, if you thought you’d become rich by becoming a well known musician or singer, that will make you think twice!

Hat tip to Mitch Joel/Alistair Croll in their fantastic weekly “Six links worthy of your attention” on Mitch’s blog

Why you should first depend on trust… and still put it in writing!

Contracts and how to behave with them are one of the most frequent issues in many instances, in particular in professional activities. In my case, it applies particularly in the field of project management activities.

Should we have a contract? What should be in there? How should one behave with respect to the other party? Be extremely contractual and formal or be relatively informal and rely on the contract only as a last resort reference? Opinions on the matter vary, behaviors are tainted with cultural differences.

One of the best guidance I found is: “Get it in writing but depend on trust“. It is a quote from an excellent book by Gerald Weinberg, ‘the Secrets of Consulting‘.

It sums it all: those that are coldly contractual are wrong. Those who are all in talking and not in writing are wrong. Both won’t get anywhere.

In all instances I have found that whatever the contractual environment, the bureaucracy and the expectations of compliance, trust needs to be created, maintained and developed between parties for things to happen. And the best project managers and managers understand that. They will try to develop trust with their counterparts.

Depend on trust. You’ll go far. Just put it in writing too!

Why We Should Strive for Complex, but not for Complicated

I loved this Gapingvoid cartoon by Hugh McLeod. Remember first why Complex is not the same as Complicated.

According to him,

Complex is intrinsic. Something is complex if it involves a lot of moving parts, even at its most basic.

Complicated is extrinsic. Something is made complicated by external factors, made complicated by stuff that’s non-essential.

Even the most simple of lives are complex… so much that can go wrong, so much needing taken care of. That doesn’t give one an excuse to make things more complicated than they need be. In fact, the opposite is true, especially in business.

Add to this that in a complex world, good (and bad) surprises and discontinuities can appear that can be exploited as opportunities.

So, when do you ditch Complication for Complexity in your life?

Do You Have the Courage of Persistence?

In the post “What’s Your Brand of Courage“, Danny Iny insists upon the different brands of courage: either the fiery exuberant type, or the day-to-day persistent type.

Which one is the most effective? Except in a few occasion (which should not be underestimated as sometimes lives can be deeply changed in those rare events), it is probably the persistence courage that is probably the most important to achieve our goals.

Courage does not always roar — Will YOU try again tomorrow?

This quote by Mary Anne Radmacher that Danny Iny’s refers to made a great impression on me. Courage is indeed often the quiet voice at the end of the day saying “I will try again tomorrow“. It is courage against complacency, the courage to build up something stone after stone, step after step.

Those of us that show this courage of persistence are possibly more courageous overall than those heroes society shows us on film, books or TV. It’s less glamour, but it’s what changes the world.

Remember. When you’re persistent, you show great courage. Be proud!

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