Wooden dolls and today's supply cahin

It sounds like an oxymoron: smart wooden dolls. However, that's exactly what manufacturer Avakai has created. Though it looks like a simple wooden doll in the shape Russian nesting dolls, it is Bluetooth enabled to offer interactive response. With their stress on connectivity, transparency, sustainability, and adaptability, this company reflects the values we're seeing in today's electronic supply chain.

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What Wooden Dolls Can Teach Us About Today’s Supply Chain

5G: potential and challenges for the brave new world of IoT

The progression to 5G from 4G is different from the previous advance from 3G because that shift was all about speed and now it's all about connection on an unprecedented scale.

More specifically, this time around, the new factor is IoT, and as Aicha Evans, corporate vice president and general manager of the Communications and Devices Group, Intel Corp.(Nasdaq: INTC), observes, this "new paradigm will require major changes to traditional cellular network topology."

Indeed, the 5G realm will encompass a lot more devices, technologies and participants than anything we've seen before. Consequently, collaboration within the industry is essential to keep the various components in communication with each other and on the same page about standards and plans. 

That's one of the key differences between the upcoming change and previous progressions, and it holds a great deal of promise for, as well as a number of challenges, for the industry.

To get some insider insight into the journey that lies ahead for arriving at 5G over the next five years, The New IP checked in with Evans via email

Read her insights in 5G & the IoT Factor

2020 Vision on 5G

By 2020, there will be 50 billion devices connected to the internet that will generate will over $8 trillion in Value at Stake, according to a recent report by Cisco and DHL That’s quite a leap in connections.

What has to happen before the connections can grow from 15 billion to 50 billion? Intel predicts that growth of 5G will happen, as the next step in the evolution of connectivity. But the question remains about exactly what forces will influence the manifestation of 5G and how long it will take to really arrive.  Diego R. Lopez, Senior Technology Expert at Telefonica I+D, offered his perspective on how we’re are to get to that point.  

Read about it in Getting to 5G

Got rhythm? This algorithm does.

from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rap-logo-persian-wiki.png

Most of us have heard of DeepBlue, the computer that harnessed artificial intelligence to beat a chess champion back in 1997. Now there’s DeepBeat, a machine learning algorithm that raps.

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An Algorithm Gets Rhythm

Mind the gap: information governance in the age of big data

"Many companies don't benefit from big data because of the gap between those who manage the data and those who apply it. The solution is information governance.


Sue Trombley, managing director of thought leadership at Iron Moutain, offered some perspective on the causes of this clarity gap.....

Going forward, Trombley asserts, businesses will have to adopt a new paradigm that enables each department to have direct access to the information it requires in order to extract value to meet its goals.  

- Read more  in Information Governance Is Key to Big Data's Value 

The value of blogs for marketing: attraction, connection, and SEO

picture from https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/42/Blog_(1).jpg

A few years ago, everyone seemed to think video was the way to go to capture attention for effective marketing. Now, people seem to realize that many people -- like me -- would prefer to read information in text form at their own pace rather than sit through a video that can take several minutes to get to a point they are truly interested in. 

Unless you have time to kill or really need to hear information to absorb it, why would you want to sit through something for 10, 15, sometimes even 45 minutes or more to get information you can read in less than 5 minutes? If you don't want to lose the attention of the people who feel that way, you need to reach out to them with articles. Smart marketers know this. That's why some are now getting writers to turn the information they had put into videos into articles. 

There are good reasons for brands to sponsor blogs.

Lots of blog readers out there

Most people, as many as 8 out of 10, according to  Content Marketing Institute consider themselves blog readers. People are also very receptive to communication from businesses in the form of blogs because of the insight they gain either from information about their field or about how the business operates without feeling like they are bombarded by ads.

 Blogs generate leads, build brand recognition, and boost SEO

Companies that blog generate 67% more leads each month than companies that don’t, according to Social Media B2B.  In addition to the blog building the brand recognition among those who read and share the content, it boosts SEO. For one thing, fresh content is a plus for Google rankings, and blogs add new content much more regularly than website updates do.

Blogs increases indexed pages and raise search engine rankings

As Content Plus explained, websites can gain 434% indexed pages and 97% more indexed links from their blogs. That increase in the indexing count translates into higher search engine rankings, which can drive a lot more browsers to a brand’s website. Indexed pages and indexed links translate into higher rankings with the search engines, which also contribute to higher rankings for a website. The effect can be even further enhanced when social media and mobile communication send out links to new content on a company blog.

No one denies that content is king, though this indicates that the power of the crown remains linked to the written word.

The science of empathy

"You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view, until you climb in his skin and walk around in it," declares Atticus Finch in Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird. Gaining that kind of empathic insight is helpful not only for fostering humanity, but for improving business results....

Ultimately, there is no magical question that will elicit what the C-suite and IT leaders need to know about their customers. In fact, some customers may not even be able to articulate exactly what caused them to feel less than satisfied. The solution to that problem is not magic, but science.


Even when people can't find words for what they are feeling, sensors can pick up on the signs of stress that, when combined with contextual data, can reveal the emotional triggers that define a customer's experience. That's where design consultant Elliot Hedman comes in. Experience designer at mPath, Hedman has developed a methodology that combines stress-testing sensors with traditional observational techniques.

Graph from mPath

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Can Data Teach Us Empathy?