A long time ago, in my very first SIT blog, I wrote about my nephew, Rani. Don’t worry though, it is not like I expect you to rememberJ. Anyway, a lot has changed since then but I’ll mention here just two relevant points: my nephew is now five years old and for the last 37.5 days he has been living in China with his parents and baby sister but unfortunately, without moi.

His move to China was accompanied by many concerns on my part, one of them being how do we manage to maintain our close relationship despite the formidable distance. I was reassured by friends saying that in today’s world, keeping in touch is much easier due to technology such as skype, but I kept wondering nevertheless how that would work when it comes to a 5-year old kid with the attention span of a… 5-year old kid.

37.5 days later, I can tell you: it works! I have between two to four weekly video calls with my nephew, each lasting something like 45 to 90 minutes.

The first time we had a skype video call, it was more of a Q&A type of thing but then I looked around and realized we are surrounded by a lot of elements that can be used to make our chat more interactive, more fun, more captivating and eventually last longer.

Let me give you a few examples of those elements identified and which activities we did using them:

Books: When I was home I noticed some of Rani’s favorite books left behind so I read to him. I just put the book itself close to the camera so he could see the pictures while he heard me reading it to him.

CDs: What I also had at home were his CDs so I put one of his favorite CDs on and we started dancing or actually more like going wild together (not recommended when you have an audience..)

Video camera: Moved the camera around and asked Rani to identify what he sees. He did the same thing and it became kind of a game with points gained for each item identified correctly.

Covered the camera with my hand, made a noise and asked Rani to identify the noise he heard.

Messages:

As Rani is just now learning his ABCs, I sent him one or two-word messages and asked him to read what I sent.

I asked him what he wanted me to write and sent him a message with this text.

Timer: for a kid as fascinated with numbers as this one, simply asking for a reading of the numbers, watching how they advance is considered an interesting activity with Aunt Iris.

Group video: add the grandparents to the chat and to the games. The more the merrier!

Our own faces: a staring competition to see who laughs first at the funny faces the other does. Again, not sure you’d want witnesses for that one…

The movements we do: triggered in me a childhood memory of the game “Simon says”. We added the grandparents to the game, by the way, using the group video which made it even more fun!

I hope that I have made the point about how easy it has been to come up with these practical ideas above simply by using what we have around us or as we call it at SIT our “Closed World”*.

By the way, our chats have become so successful that my sister- in-law actually found a substantial benefit for her. She sets up some of our chats herself to keep little Rani busy only so that she can take a much needed nap herself…

*Note: The SIT Closed World principle dictates that, when solving a problem or developing new products (or services or processes), one should strive to use only those resources that exist in the product (or system) itself, or in its immediate vicinity.

Budweiser, Heineken, Bud Light, Stella Artois and others are all communicating the message that someone is making an absurdly exaggerated effort to get hold of their beer. Or variations on this theme such as: the effort to be able to enjoy the beverage in its pristine situation.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7aO3TO5L0bM

Commonly it’s an effort made from the point of view of the consumer, but sometimes it’s from the company, telling us about the lengths it goes to allow its customers to experience their product in the most favorable conditions, or the sacrifices made to preserve the secret formula.

In a recent campaign from the UK cider brand Strongbow, the basic pattern is given a neat twist, and plays on the idea of being ‘deserving’ enough to drink the product. Pie stuffers, window-cleaners and gas fitters have earned it through their sacrifice, and banker…well, as the ads tell us, what have they done to deserve it?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkZSFlkA1NM&feature=relmfu

In a world of fierce originality and brand competition, it is a curious phenomenon that a whole category tends to follow the same basic advertising approach. Why? Is it the lack of a unique selling point/message? And could this happen in other categories? For instance, could it be that all cellular companies will communicate the same message? Or should they make an effort to come up with a distinctive message?!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3tywFm95Sg

This solution seems quite elegant, but the reality is that even with a video substitute there are still a few vital characteristics missing.  The telecommuter using video chat software is confined to the computer of the person he is talking to and is not able to be part of the office culture. 

The ingenious folks over at Willow Garage (a company that develops open source software for robot applications) have taken telecommuting one step further with the introduction of the telepresence robot.  This “robot” allows telecommuters to move around the office, be part of meetings or presentations, and totally freak out the new guy.  Check out the video below to see the telepresence robots in action at Mozilla headquarters!

©iStockphoto.com/hidesy

When you leave the academia and join the ‘evil forces’ of the free market, the paranoia releases its grip a little and you start to understand, consent, and even collaborate.

Every now and then you’ll hear faint voices from the past, in various contexts, warning you: Beware, conspiracy ahead!

I get this feeling occasionally when I surf websites that identify new trends. It‘s hard to complain when your job requires you to be updated on all the latest global trends. Hard, but not impossible.

A paranoid surfer will find it hard to ignore the sneaking suspicion that all these trend sites have joined forces into one ruthless monopoly that tries to persuade us, as hard as it can, that it is only here to identify, when, in reality, what it does is dictate. Marginal phenomena are defined as growing trends with great social and economic potential.

The persuasion process is cyclical: the industry, determined to reveal the next best thing (although it doesn’t always have the courage to adopt it… but that’s a topic for future posts), begs to be told what it is; the trend prophets have their say; the marketing and advertising firms pump up the volume; the consumer listens, and like a well educated proletariat, does what is expected and makes a purchase.

But what came first? The trend or the prediction? It isn’t obvious, and it might not even matter at all. Part of growing up is facing the fact that you’re better off leaving conspiracy theories on campus and jumping into the water (albeit very shallow) of the trend industry.

Because, no matter how you look at it, being trendy pays off. Being innovative in the world of trends is even more advantageous. Finding those places ‘inside the box’ that have yet to be conquered, but have been identified as trend-controlled zones, is a demanding, never ending, but very rewarding task.

So even if you are convinced, like I am, that somewhere out there, a committee of people of means and interests dictates the next trend, you might as well listen to its verdict, if only for stimulus. The path leading from there to new ideas is a fascinating one. In the following posts, we’ll walk down this path together.