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The world at seven billion

TechDept — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 09:00:52 +0000

The world’s population is expected to hit seven billion in the next few weeks. After growing very slowly for most of human history, the number of people on Earth has more than doubled in the last 50 years. Where do you fit into this story of human life? Fill in your date of birth to find out.

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For BBC News: World, 27 Oct 2011.

The digital economy

TechDept — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 09:00:40 +0000

Digitization is creating a second economy that’s vast, automatic, and invisible — thereby bringing the biggest change since the Industrial Revolution.

In 1850, a decade before the Civil War, the United States’ economy was small — it wasn’t much bigger than Italy’s. Forty years later, it was the largest economy in the world. What happened in-between was the railroads. They linked the east of the country to the west, and the interior to both. They gave access to the east’s industrial goods; they made possible economies of scale; they stimulated steel and manufacturing — and the economy was never the same.

Deep changes like this are not unusual. Every so often — every 60 years or so — a body of technology comes along and over several decades, quietly, almost unnoticeably, transforms the economy: it brings new social classes to the fore and creates a different world for business. Can such a transformation — deep and slow and silent — be happening today?

By W. Brian Arthur for McKinsey Quarterly, Oct 2011.

Mobile accounts for 10% of e-commerce visits but converts at half the rate

TechDept — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 16:38:38 +0000

Mobile is now driving an average of 10% of visits to e-commerce sites, but there is much work to be done to optimise conversion rates, according to a new study.

The study by e-commerce agency Screen Pages looked at more than 1.5m visitors to 30 non-optimised websites, and found that conversion rates were an average of 41% lower on mobile.

Whether retailers are prepared or not, mobile users are accessing their sites, and this study gives some idea of how mobile users interact with standard sites on mobiles.

By Graham Charlton for Econsultancy, 04 Oct 2011.

AIDS puzzle solved by computer gamers

TechDept — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 09:00:29 +0000

Computer game skills could help save lives, and not just virtual ones.

As fanciful as it may sound at first, gamers onFoldit, a crowdsourced, online protein folding simulator from the University of Washington,actually managed to solve a longstanding problem in AIDS research that has vexed scientists for more than a decade. And they did so in about 10 days.

Three players in particular were able to build upon each other to establish the most accurate model to date of an elusive protease enzyme in the AIDS-like Mason-Pfizer monkey virus.

By Carl Franzen for TPM Idea Lab, 20 Sept 2011.

The twelve attributes of a truly great place to work

TechDept — Sun, 25 Sep 2011 09:00:50 +0000

More than 100 studies have now found that the most engaged employees — those who report they’re fully invested in their jobs and committed to their employers — are significantly more productive, drive higher customer satisfaction and outperform those who are less engaged.

But only 20 per cent of employees around the world report that they’re fully engaged at work.

It’s a disconnect that serves no one well. So what’s the solution? Where is the win-win for employers and employees?

By Tony Schwartz for Harvard Business Review Blog, 19 September 2011.

Web surfing helps at work

TechDept — Sat, 03 Sep 2011 09:00:41 +0000

Don’t feel guilty about browsing the Internet at work—turns out it may actually improve your performance.

According to a new study, Web browsing can actually refresh tired workers and enhance their productivity, compared to other activities such as making personal calls, texts or emails, let alone working straight through with no rest at all.

The study, “Impact of Cyberloafing on Psychological Engagement,” by Don J.Q. Chen and Vivien K.G Lim of the National University of Singapore, was presented last week in San Antonio, Texas, at the annual meeting of the Academy of Management, an association of management scholars.

By Rachel Emma Silverman for The Wall Street Journal, 22 August 2011.

Working on holiday: Your views on the ‘worliday’

TechDept — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 09:00:28 +0000

Lucy Kellaway of the Financial Times wrote last week about a vision of the future where people would get more holiday – and do odd bits of work from the beach or mountain peak, with the help of smartphones, Blackberries and laptops to make up for it.

Readers responded to her proposal with hundreds of emails. Many told us that they, or their family members, had been doing this themselves – with varying results.

By Mark Taylor for BBC News: World, 22 August 2011.

The rise of the networked enterprise: web 2.0 finds its payday

TechDept — Sat, 06 Aug 2011 09:00:33 +0000

McKinsey’s new survey research finds that companies using the Web intensively gain greater market share and higher margins.

Every new technology has its skeptics. In the 1980s, many observers doubted that the broad use of information technologies such as enterprise resource planning (ERP) to remake processes would pay off in productivity improvements—indeed, the economist Robert Solow famously remarked, “You can see the computer age everywhere but in the productivity statistics.”¹ Today, that sentiment has gravitated to Web 2.0 technologies. Management is trying to understand if they are a passing fad or an enduring trend that will underwrite a new era of better corporate performance.

By Jacques Bughin and Michael Chui for McKinsey Quarterly, December 2010.

What they know about us

TechDept — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 09:00:10 +0000

Marketers are spying on Internet users — observing and remembering people’s clicks, and building and selling detailed dossiers of their activities and interests.

The Wall Street Journal’s What They Know series documents the new, cutting-edge uses of this Internet-tracking technology. The Journal analyzed the tracking files installed on people’s computers by the 50 most popular U.S. websites, plus WSJ.com. The Journal also built an “exposure index” — to determine the degree to which each site exposes visitors to monitoring — by studying the tracking technologies they install and the privacy policies that guide their use.

By The Wall Street Journal.

12 Ways to engage the “tech fast forward” family

TechDept — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 13:25:19 +0000

Brand marketers, take note: There’s a new family segment called “Tech Fast Forward” (TFF) that represents new opportunities for the future.

According to a just-released study by Ogilvy & Mather in partnership with Communispace, this emerging demographic is a household that uses more sophisticated technology than the average person and includes children ages 3 to 12.

The study (download it here or here) was conducted with 1200 tech savvy American kids and their families with at least one child between the ages of 3 and 12.

The report’s key findings indicate that TFF families have a more positive mindset overall and express less anxiety about the future than other families. Parents in TFF families believe technology is helping their children develop critical skills that will empower them to navigate — and maybe even save — the world in years to come.

By Barry Silverstein for Brand Channel, 22 June 2011.