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Gartner recently outlined what it considers to be the most strategic tech for the coming year. I realised that Resdida was working on 7 of these 10 technology areas - some more than others of course, but it was a reminder of our focus, as Gretzky would say, of "skating to where the puck will be."
The 7 technologies are cloud computing, mobile apps, collaboration, video, next generation analytics, social analytics and context-aware computing.
What excites me most about these areas is that so much is possible within the technology that is available today, right now. As much as we'd like to hold our collective breath and wait until the world is the way we'd like it to be, the possibilities are almost endless for those organizations creative enough to leverage what is possible and respond to the world the way it is.
Our MOBILIZE platform is a solid example of this: by utilizing an affordable cloud-based software-as-a-service application, open source technologies, and the humble (but powerful) SMS, we are able to leverage the technology here and now to create something unique and truly powerful - whether you are reaching out to communities in the US or in developing countries. You can learn more about MOBILIZE here.
You can read the Gartner report here.
It’s a great reminder that so much is possible right now, we only need to leverage it
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I'm about to generalize a lot about cellphone value - but I think its worth it.
A few months ago I read an article entitled "India's Mobile Providers: Competing for Calls at the Bottom of the Pyramid" via Knowledge@Wharton (read it here). The story opens with an Indian man's wife grumbling because her husband spent approximately 3 weeks salary on a mobile phone. For the average American (Salary Info: Wikipedia - average median salary = $43,000), this would constitute a US phone that costs over $2000!!
I know no-one who would make this kind of spend on a phone. Even an iPhone or Android smartphone is going to run at <$600, which would mean less than one week's salary here. As is typically the case, the poor are forced to outlay well over 3x what we do for a VASTLY inferior product on a vastly inferior network, and they have to pay for the service up front every month, while I am billed after the fact.
So I got to thinking - what IS something that constitutes an equivalent spend for the average American? What do we purchase that equals 3 weeks' salary, or at least $2500? I made a list, checked it twice:
1. Laptop - currently indispensible - I would refresh my laptop every 3-4 years
2. Car/House/Education - indispensible, but are all managed via loans, not cash outlay
3. Food/Clothes/rent/utilities/insurance/healthcare - comes out in affrordable amounts each month, and are essential
4. Life event - birth, death, marriage, divorce
OK, so its really down to a laptop. Thats the only item that has even a vaguely similar equivalence. Like I said, I'm generalizing, but stick with me. Let's look at the results from these tools:
I buy a high-end Apple laptop for $2500: I get to keep working - its a pay-to-play in our economy. My income doesnt necessarily go up or down, at least not appreciably. Now, thats not true for young programmers, web or graphic designers, and others where a laptop is truly transformational, but it would be an accurate generalization for many.
The Indian laborer's income rose from $60 per month (thats $2 a day folks) to $100 a month ($3.33 per day). He remains part of the BOP, but his gross income rose 66% in a few months - PURELY BECAUSE HE OWNS A CELLPHONE.
So what would appreciate an average US income by 66%? What would take an income from $43,000 to $71,000? A huge promotion, doing an MBA or additional college degree maybe (which would also incur a massive debt)? Its hard to imagine a piece of technology doing that. The only analogy I could think of was if you purchased a work truck or big tool for your contracting business, or a new medical device for your practice, at least while the market for your services is required. You get the point - its hard to think of something that valuable to your bottom line.
With over 11 million new cellphone connections every month in India alone, thats an unprecedented amount of value creation and wealth. If only 25% of these connections were among the BOP (estimates suggest much higher figures), this could represent 275,000 poor people getting new cellphones. Now if only half of those (138,000) were increasing their incomes by $40 a month, this would mean a generation of $6 million NEW dollars a month for an underserved market that desperately needs to escape poverty.
Like I said, I'm going to generalize a lot about cellphone value - I hope it was worth it for you. Its DEFINITELY worth it for the world's poor.
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With well over 5 billion cell phone connections globally, mobile opportunities are exploding across every corner of the social sector.
If you’re interested in mobile uses for the developing economies, it’s quite easy to find industry data around who is buying what kinds of phones in various countries and continents. Likewise, if you want to dig deeper as to how the poor use mobile technology, there are a range of organizations and individuals that cover this with (literally) an anthropological perspective and level of detail.
But what about mobile uses for those organizations that are serving communities that comprise the Base of the global economic Pyramid (BOP)? Research and guidance on the mobile industry and application development for the leaders and managers within the social sector is almost non-existent, yet could be argued to be the most critical to scalable growth for these organizations.
To fill this gap, Resdida has launched a number of initiatives: one of the most exciting to us is the launch of our “Developing Mobile Markets” survey. Over the next few months, we will be gathering data from hundreds (possibly thousands) of organizations on how they use mobile technology and what their needs might be in the near future.
We are seeking professionals serving the social sector in any industry, any country/region around the world, at any level of their organizations. Anyone from an entry-level staff member, a program manager, IT developer, or CEO should participate. In fact, the more diverse our participants, the greater the results will be. Feel free to share the link with others in your organization or at other organizations serving marginalized and poor communities in developing and developed countries.
This is a community effort, and we really appreciate everyone’s participation! So, we want to make it worth everyone’s effort. We are offering every participant that completes the survey a free copy of the results of the “Developing Mobile Markets” survey, as well as a 25% discount off the price of our MOBILIZE platform.
Don’t wait – we are starting to gather data immediately – so please take a look and spend the next 5 minutes completing the survey.
TAKE THE SURVEY NOW: “Developing Mobile Markets”
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Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) has become something of the “solution de jour” for the for-profit sector as companies seek to shave costs further and focus on their core deliverables, which for most businesses is typically not building software.
While the social sector tends to trail for-profit markets by several months when it comes to macro-economic forces and spending, I am beginning to see movement in the direction of SaaS. The question for social businesses and non-profits alike remains, “Is online software right for our organization?”
In the end, I believe its “horses for courses” (as we say in Australia). For some situations, using off-the-shelf software (such as Microsoft Office or Adobe Photoshop) will suffice. This is particularly evident when the software is a leading application, and the product meets the majority of requirements.
For other situations, building an open source and/or “Free Open Source Software” (FOSS) solution makes a lot of sense. If the application needs to be openly shared, developed and built upon over time by a “connected” industry that is sufficiently resourced to create and maintain an appropriate solution, the benefits can be significant. Caution should be taken when considering how “free” such solutions are, as open source tends to be as “free” as puppies are free – indeed, sometimes they are about as “free” as inheriting the whole litter! But in many cases, the benefits far outweigh the risks.
As a SaaS provider, I may come to this topic with a distinct bias – but my background has been equally shared across open source and installed software solutions. I am meeting more and more companies that are simply not interested in being a software developer. These organizations are keenly focused on mother/child healthcare, economic development, safety, and other social missions.
For those organizations, SaaS can be a real opportunity. Some the many benefits these organizations can realize include:
· Lower total cost of ownership (TCO)
· Immediate startup
· Complete development already done (Dev, QA, UAT, Release)
· Maintenance included in the monthly cost
· No IT staff or technical coding required
· Low-cost entry to use the functionality due to monthly subscriptions
Consider how many organizations build their own email programs these days: none. Why? Because there are many effective and affordable alternatives. I believe that we will see more SaaS products introduced within the social sector in 2010.
As I said earlier, its horses for courses, but there are a lot of organizations out there who just need to run effective programs, not be in the business of software creation, release and maintenance.
It all comes back to a single question – what is your core mission?
Tags: SaaS, Cloud, Software
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Running a business is tough work, startups even more so, social business startups more so still. Juggling the various aspects can take you from dark lows to euphoric highs within the same day. As Winston Churchill put it, “Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.” But startup teams, particularly in the social space, who embody an agile startup mentality have something that keeps them going, a secret sauce…
Several years ago I came across a viral video of comedian/juggler Chris Bliss performing to a live studio audience. He simply walked out and without a word began juggling, to a mashup soundtrack of Beatles' tracks from the eponymous “Abbey Road” Check it out here (note: you may have to click the link within the video to play it on the YouTube site)…
OK, if you aren’t amazed, what I’m about to say in this post won’t make a lot of sense. In fact, you’ll downright disagree, which is exactly what a niche group of hard core jugglers did. After this video went viral, “serious” jugglers around the world scoffed at his performance, picking apart his technique, his approach and his lack of juggling ability.
One such juggler went so far as to copy the routine, but doubled down on the tricks, making it technically perfect and much more complex – demonstrating that he was by far the better juggler. See his video entitled "Chris Bliss Diss Video":
Comedians and jugglers share a common history, that of the jongleur. Think of them as the traveling minstrels, or for those who are familiar with Shakespeare, the Fool who “advises” the King. Their role went way beyond performance – it involved performance art, satire, observation and advice to nobility way above their pay grade.
Back to Chris Bliss: Keep in mind that he is a comedian first & foremost, who happens to juggle. He is not a juggler who tells the odd joke.
What Chris did was share an admirable level of skill (lets face it, most of us can’t even juggle three balls, despite all our college drinking game efforts), to a soundtrack that was delightfully familiar, mashed up in a slightly new way, in order to entertain and open our minds to beauty. the secret sauce of this audio-visual-performance mashup?
Creative passion.
Passion is what sets this performance apart. My wonderful old boss at Credit Suisse used to quote Voltaire to me (on a good day), saying: "the perfect is the enemy of the good." this is a wonderful example. Chris Bliss' technical offering is adequate - its "good enough" because frankly, it doesn’t need to be any better to achieve the desired result. It is an honest and passionate approach to his craft. He did not say a word, but I wager that a very low percentage of viewers in that audience were not deeply moved by his creative statement. The viral views on You Tube alone are now over 1.2million – that says a lot.
I’m not going to wax lyrical about how that applies to social businesses, communications or business models that serve the poor. I will say that at Resdida, we work to be effective, not perfect, and we do so with a creative passion that I thoroughly enjoy. I think John, Paul, George & Ringo have expressed this approach far more eloquently at the end of the song…“and in the end… the love you take… is equal to the love you make."
So, how's your juggling?
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