Coordinando la colección Pocket Innova de la editorial Netbiblo

Desde hace unos meses, Open Economy, es decir, Juan Vicente García y yo (Jose L. Marin) estamos realizando la coordinación editorial de la colección Pocket Innova para Netbiblo.

Netiblo es una editorial científico-técnica independiente que desde 2001 apuesta por la innovación tanto en el contenido como en el formato y en la difusión, con la que, como sabéis, Juan Vicente ha publicado los títulos "Innovar en la era del conocimiento" y "Gestión de la innovación empresarial".


El objetivo de la serie POCKET INNOVA es acercar la disciplina de la innovación a directivos, académicos, estudiantes y técnicos de empresa interesados en conocer el qué y porqué de la innovación. Todos los títulos de la colección pretenden abordar, con cercanía y rigor, las distintas temáticas que componen la innovación y que se han estructurado en cinco áreas temáticas:

• Tecnología. Esta sección tiene como objetivo acercar a los lectores la información sobre las tecnologías emergentes, los últimos avances y las aplicaciones a nuevos productos y servicios.
• Financiación. Desde las subvenciones hasta el capital riesgo, los business angels, el VII Programa Marco de I+D y un largo etcétera, conforman los mecanismos de financiación de la I+D+i, los cuales serán abordados en la serie de una forma clara y práctica.
• Actores. Existen multitud de organismos y expertos que trabajan en materia de innovación en España, desde los organismos públicos hasta los privados, fundaciones, centros tecnológicos, expertos, redes... El quién es quién de la innovación en España y en Europa es el objetivo de esta sección.
• Gestión de la innovación. Sección central de la serie, la cual incluye metodologías prácticas que se pueden aplicar a la gestión de la innovación en las organizaciones. Desde la implantación de sistemas de I+D+i hasta la gestión de proyectos tecnológicos; desde la vigilancia tecnológica hasta la propiedad industrial y la transferencia tecnológica, todos ellos son temas cruciales para la puesta en marcha de organizaciones innovadoras.
• Capital humano y creatividad. Las personas son el elemento central de la innovación, su conocimiento, la creatividad, el trabajo en equipo, el liderazgo para la innovación y muchos otros temas componen una atractiva temática que todos aquellos que quieran adentrarse en el mundo de la innovación deben conocer.

La coordinación editorial de Pocket Innova es un proyecto que estamos abordando con mucha ilusión, ya que además de participar en estructurar y decidir los diferentes títulos, nos está permitiendo colaborar de forma muy cercana con autores que son referentes en sus diferentes disciplinas de conocimiento. Además de trabajar en Netbiblo con profesionales de la talla de Cristina Seco, Carlos Iglesias o Alejandro Álvarez.

En breve os contaremos más cosas acerca de los cuatro primeros títulos que están a punto de salir de imprenta y de sus autores, de los nuevos contenidos para los que estamos contactando autores y de las presentaciones de los diferentes libros. En definitiva de todo lo referente a nuestra actividad para contribuir a que los 52 libros que se publicarán entre 2010 y 2011 en la serie POCKET INNOVA sean un éxito y sobre todo ayuden a promover el conocimiento en todas las disciplinas relacionadas con la innovación. Por supuesto, si tenéis alguna sugerencia o propuesta que pueda encajar dentro de las características de la colección, no dudéis en contactar con Juan Vicente o conmigo en pocket.innova@openeconomy.net

Open Data Movement: Free our Data

It has been several months since I wanted to talk you about the Open Data Movement, specially after my participation in November in FICOD 09 representing Euroalert.net, in the roundtable about creating value through the reuse of public sector information.

During the past few months we have been living kind of an Open Data Rush that started with Obama's promise of government transparency, which in terms of data openness ended, among others, in Data.gov pioneering initiative. Since then several countries, mainly English speaking ones, have launched their own initiatives. You can check, New Zeeland Open Data Catalogue, or Australia Catalogue, and also individual cities like Open Toronto or New York City open data websites. There is a good repository of governments that are opening up their data vaults around the world at The Guardian Open Data Platform or at Fundacion CTIC website

In the European Union since 2003 we have the Directive 2003/98/EC on the Re-use of Public Sector Information (PSI) that has already been transposed into all the members national laws. That means, in simple words, that the EU27 Member States are enforced by law to promote open data, although to date only United Kingdom seems to be doing a significant effort. Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who is being advised by Sir Tim Berners Lee and Professor Nigel Shadbolt, has talked in several speeches about his aim of turning UK into a world leader in making government data more accessible to the public. This commitment to Open Data Community, considered as an important element of Building Britain’s Future, has led to Data.gov.uk website for the promotion of the reuse of UK public data or the announcement of the creation of "The Institute of Web Science" initially funded with £30M.

In Spain, we are quite far from leading anything in the web, although it is remarkable the effort done by Proyecto Aporta, a small initiative at the Ministry of Industry with very scarce resources, that I presented you a few months ago. For example, in March 2010 Proyecto Aporta launched a beta version of a catalogue of public information in Spain, which sadly contains very little raw data available, and thus, useful for reuse by companies or individuals.

There is not a strong political support from Spanish authorities, and Spain is going to loose another opportunity to improve its performance in digital innovation and to participate in the major changes in economy and society we are living. I cannot not understand why an initiative that would have such a huge positive impact on innovation it is not being pushed firmly in our country. Open Data is a very cheap investment for a Government and the main reasons that are pushing forward these initiatives around the world are purely economic. The European Commission estimated in 2006 that the overall market size for the reuse of Public Sector Information in the EU is 27.000 million Euros (0.25% of the total aggregated GDP for the EU)

In order to be up to date, I recommend the EPSIPlatform, Europe's One-Stop Shop on Public Sector Information (PSI) Re-use, where you will find, among other useful resources, the best tracking I know of all news, announcements and moves in the Open Data World. You can also follow EPSIplatform in Twitter. If you want to get involved I suggest you to follow The Open Knowledge Foundation (OKFN) projects around any kind of information that can be freely used, reused, and redistributed.

Open Data might be a drop in the ocean of economy, but it is a really cheap move, it is easy for public authorities, there are not major shortcomings, it does not hurt any industry and there is a lot of political return, apart from the economic as transparency is a hot topic for citizens. So please move on!. Companies need raw data for developing new and innovative products! Free our data!

Let´s dance innovation, Oslo Manual new vision on innovation

One of the novelties from the 3rd Edition of the Oslo Manual is focused on the consideration of non technological innovations. Thus, marketing and organizational innovations are considered to be one of the ways in which the business can innovate, besides the classical product and process innovations.

More specifically, marketing innovations are defined as the implementation of a new marketing method involving significant changes in product design or packaging, product placement, product promotion or pricing.

The innovation focused on design and packaging has manifold examples, but the other three kinds of marketing innovations seem to be difficult to identify and to distinguish from other innovation activities.

Just take a look at one of those three, and let’s see what we understand by marketing innovations focusing on new ways of product promotion. The Oslo Manual set that this kind of innovations (product promotion) involve the use of new concepts for promoting a firm’s goods and services. For example, the first use of a significantly different media or technique, such as product placement in movies or television programmes, or the use of celebrity endorsements, is a marketing innovation.

Other examples of marketing innovations are branding (significant changes), the introduction of a personalised information system, e.g. obtained from loyalty cards or other actions such as tailored presentations of products to the specific needs of individual customers.

Apparently, the Oslo Manual have adopted a wide vision considering some commercial or promotion practices as marketing innovation, let me give you an example and just take a look at this video and enjoy the dance marketing as a way of innovating. Do not tell me that there are not innovative ways to become an innovator:

Sin alcohol, pero con mucha innovación

El día 4 de marzo, y dentro de las Jornadas de Innovación que organizamos en la UEMC, tuvimos la suerte de recibir a Beatriz Moro del Grupo Matarromera.

Beatriz nos habló de uno de los productos más innovadores del Grupo, EMINA SIN, primer vino sin alcohol en el mercado, lo que ha supuesto una innovación radical en este tipo de bebidas.

Cuando los hábitos de los consumidores van cambiando, la conciencia acerca del consumo de alcohol y la conducción es cada vez más fuerte y el consumo de vino en el mercado se ve sometido cada vez más a una competencia feroz; el Grupo Matarromera ha sido capaz de innovar y lanzar al mercado un vino SIN ALCOHOL.

Beatriz nos relató como se ha llegado a conseguir este producto, fruto de la labor de investigación y desarrollo continuada, la cual ha contado con el apoyo de distintas administraciones públicas.

Además, la innovación no termina con un producto realmente novedoso, sino que se ha trasladado al marketing, con una imagen nueva y fresca, nuevos envases para este tipo de productos y acciones promocionales muy novedosas.

Aunque ya casi no tuvimos tiempo, Beatriz nos habló de otra de las líneas de productos que han puesto en marcha: los cosméticos, los cuales utilizan los polifenoles provenientes del vino como base para su producción.

Creo que todos los asistentes quedamos encantados por ver ejemplos tan claros de cómo la innovación se puede llevar a la práctica y además aquí mismo, en Castilla y León. Para todos aquellos que queráis consultar el material que utilizó Beatriz en su presentación, la podéis encontrar a continuación.
EMINA_SIN

Presentando "Innovar en la era del conocimiento" en A Coruña

El martes 23 de febrero tuve el placer de presentar mi nuevo libro: “Innovar en la era del Conocimiento: Claves para construir una organización innovadora” (Netbiblo). El libro está prologado por D. Antonio Abril Abadín (Presidente del Consejo Social de la Universidad de la Coruña y Consejero Secretario General de Inditex) y abre la colección “Transfiere UDC” que esta institución lanza para promover la transferencia de conocimiento universidad – empresa.

La presentación se llevó a acabo dentro de las Jornadas “Transfiere Conocimiento en Red”, la cual fue abierta por el Rector de la Universidad de la Coruña y el Consejero de Economía e Industria de la Xunta de Galicia y contó con la presencia de los más destacados responsables de la innovación y el desarrollo en España:

• Luis Javier Fierro López, presidente de la Red de Fundaciones Universidad y Empresa de España (REDFUE),
• Felipe Romera Rubias, presidente de la Asociación de Parques Científicos y Tecnológicos de España (APTE),
• Juan Mulet Meliá, director general de la Fundación para la Innovación Tecnológica COTEC,
• Lorena Muñoz, directora del Departamento de Seguimiento, Análisis y Prospectiva de la Fundación Española para la Ciencia y la Tecnología (FECYT), adscrito al Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación;
• Emilio Pérez Picazo, presidente de la Federación Española de Centros Tecnológicos (FEDIT),
• Francesc Solé, vicepresidente de la Fundación Conocimiento y Desarrollo (CYD),
• Juan Castro, responsable de la Unidad de Apoyo a la Creación de Empresas del CSIC; y
• Luis Enrique San José, jefe del departamento de Coordinación y Dinamización del Centro para el Desarrollo Tecnológico Industrial (CDTI), adscrito al Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación.

Para quienes no pudísteis asistir aquí os dejo las transparencias que utilicé en la conferencia de presentación del libro:

Juan Vicente Garcia Innovar en La Era Del Conocimiento

Por cierto, los que tengáis interés en el libro, ya sabéis, preguntad en vuestra librería o acudid directamente a Netbiblo. Espero que os guste!!!

In Dublin speaking about the web as a way to improve market intelligence in the Open Economy

Tomorrow I will be flying to Dublin, where I will be speaking at the "SMART CONSTRUCTION - DOING BUSINESS IN THE NETHERLANDS" seminar, organized by Enterprise Ireland, the Government's agency for the development and promotion of Irish business sector.

The seminar will take place at Enterprise Ireland HQ in Dublin, next Tuesday February 23rd 2010, from 08.45, where the registration starts, to 15:30, where the pre-booked one-to-one meetings are expected to end. This event is one of the activities organized for the Ireland Construct community, created with the objective to help Irish construction companies achieve strong positions in global market, and in this case will focus on the Dutch Construction industry.

I have been kindly invited by EI in my position of CEO at Gateway SCS which as you know owns the internet property Euroalert.net, a well know brand in Europe in the public procurement information services field.

I will be speaking around noon and I will share the morning panel with several experts in the Netherlands building environment sector:

• Bas van der Veen, Professor at Innovative Entrepreneurship in Construction at Saxion University who will present "The future of the Construction Industry in the Netherlands"
• Pieter van Boom, Managing Director at Bartels consulting engineers,who will speak about "Partnering opportunities – the realities in the Dutch market"
  
• Peter van de Boogaard, owner of NewCon Vastgoed bv, who will share "The expectations of a Dutch buyer in the Construction industry", and
  
• Martin Bourgonje, from Synergy Management, who will contribute with "Doing Business in the Netherlands – the small print"
  

I will try to contribute with Euroalert.net expertise in helping individual SMEs across the European Union, to compete with biggest companies, by providing more accurate, and fastest information on tenders in Europe or with market intelligence tools on public procurement opportunities like 10ders Observatory

In my presentation "Digging business leads out of the internet", I will mix the concepts of public procurement as an affordable way to export for SMEs, and the levelling factor of the web that brings more cost-effective tools to market intelligence on public procurement. The web is reshaping every aspect of our life and businesses have the opportunity to perform better in this Open Economy, by using improved tools to do old tasks. I hope Euroalert's modest contribution will help with useful tips in this at-the-gate-of-recovery scenery. Please, feel free to review and comment on the full presentation:
Digging business leads out of the internet

If you are in Dublin these days, please contact me, so perhaps we can share a pint of Guinness in the evening ;-)

Google to fix our mobile experience?

First they fixed search. (Don't you remember searching for document in the late 90s as a painful experience?) And as soon as they started to make good money out of selling ads they went public.

Then they put a lot of that money on developing (or buying) astonishing tools that improved our global internet experience (Gmail, Google Maps, Google News or Google Books) (Don't you remember managing your email with Hotmail as a nightmare?). And they are making every year huge money with and incredible financial perfomance.

They are still investing on building more of that tools. Some of them will be great and perhaps any of them will change our way of interacting with [... whatever...]. Surely they will go on making good money for a while.

All of that has been happening in the PC because, to be honest, we have been using our expensive smartphones (which many of us renew every year) to make phone calls (and lately photos). We have been spending 400€ on mobile devices to make [very expensive] phone calls. The ever connected Apple iPhone started to change the landscape and this week they are starting to sell their own device, the Nexus One, which uses their Android open source mobile operating system and is manufactured by HTC Corporation

As they have successfully done many times, they aim to boost a new era in user's experience while interacting with the internet, now through mobile devices. The simple three-word-motto is quite clear "web meets phone"

But this time there is remarkable difference: it is so weird to see Google selling hardware to consumers, and they are not used to this not-so-digital-business in which they have to deal with customers (real people). So I think there is a chance Google can fail, and that is news, isn't it? At least, sales started weak...

Be serious: The Internet it is not just about "their culture"

I was not keen to participate in the debate started a couple of weeks ago around Sustainability-Economy-Act-hidden-reforms affecting the internet in Spain. (Have a quick look at #manifiesto debate in Twitter, search Blogs, browse the group in Facebook, etc). But the Ministry of Culture went too far, trying to skip some basic rules that citizens expect from their governments in democracy (listening to all interested parties, explaining the real extension of the reforms, ...) They did not even communicate the existence of the amendment!!!! Thanks to the malicious way they are intending to change the law, the controversy even reached Boing Boing, and Slashdot, two very remarkable hits considering the insignificant relevance of our country in the internet.

Just in case you do not want to go further reading this post, I am not going to write about freedom of speech, nor about fundamental rights. Perhaps only a little bit about Intellectual Property, but in a broader sense than these interested-guys-of-the-culture try to define the concept (as if they were the only creators...) If you are expecting that, you should follow A-list bloggers like Escolar, Julio Alonso, Enrique Dans, and most of the other 150K "activists".

Of course it does not matter at all if Escolar, Dans and the others who were generously spending (or wasting) their precious time at the Ministry represent the internet community or not. Where was I when such a thing was founded? Fortunately they must be intelligent enough not to worry about that meaningless debate.

What everybody seems to be forgetting about is that we are wasting the energies that we need to build a real knowledge-based economy, founded on innovative, competitive and productive industries. Instead of that we are increasing the gap with truly non-bricked based economies, and trying to enforce the shift in our economy by law. What kind of future do we deserve?

What I have really missed in all the manifiesto mess is a strong voice coming from the Ministry of Industry saying something like: Please kids of the culture, leave the internet alone. We are not going to let you kill our weak internet-based-innovation in the name of your more than questionable interests.

Do they really think that people do not go to the cinema to watch over-subsidized-spanish movies because of P2P?. Juas!. As everybody knows since ever, The Internet is for porn, not for downloading their second-class products.

Music will not disappear in 5 years. It will be a stronger industry because innovators will figure out more ways of making money in the new and global economic scenario, powered by the internet. Of course business models based on the selling of overcharged dvds will disappear. But this kind of transformations happen in every other activity sector when a crisis overcomes or a disruptive change happens. And change and crisis have always happened and the only way to survive is innovation.

And yes, I am really upset. Please keep your hands off the internet!!!!!. You are going to kill our little opportunity to reach developed economies. Yes, Intellectual Property needs to be redefined, but this is not the way. All the creators should have something to say because it is not only a matter of culture. And surely IP must be transformed in something else, apart from giving a right to sue people or closing websites.