tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-74087701075447425252024-03-05T00:54:51.064-08:00innovation&enterprisedaveghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03419824593002430613noreply@blogger.comBlogger23125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7408770107544742525.post-85687856232699042302011-06-21T11:53:00.000-07:002011-06-21T12:44:27.002-07:00Sadly, not every internet cloud has a silver lining<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">I like the convenience of cloud computing. I work from home frequently and it's convenient to keep some files in the cloud. I used to use a USB stick for mobile file storage until I left it in a lecture theatre and lost the latest version of something I drafting. The cloud is always available so now my data can't be left behind in a room. I'm currently collaborating on a project that requires me to share various versions of files with three others. Sharing files, making sure we are all using the latest version, is also easier in the cloud rather than via email. </span><div><br /></div><div>I use dropbox.com. This is a popular site. According to <a href="http://www.thinq.co.uk/2011/6/21/dropbox-flaw-left-thousands-users-risk/">thinq.com</a>, "25 million users save more than 200 million files on dropbox every day. </div><div><br /></div><div>Yesterday, Dropbox announced that: </div><div><br /></div><div>"... <span class="Apple-style-span" style=" color: rgb(54, 54, 54); line-height: 19px; font-family:'Lucida Grande', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">we made a code update at 1:54pm Pacific time that introduced a bug affecting our authentication mechanism. We discovered this at 5:41pm and a fix was live at 5:46pm. A very small number of users (much less than 1 percent) logged in during that period, some of whom could have logged into an account without the correct password. As a precaution, we ended all logged in sessions.</span></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" color: rgb(54, 54, 54); font-family:'Lucida Grande', Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:11px;"><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border- outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline- line-height: 1.8; text-align: left; color:initial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">We’re conducting a thorough investigation of related activity to understand whether any accounts were improperly accessed. If we identify any specific instances of unusual activity, we’ll immediately notify the account owner. If you’re concerned about any activity that has occurred in your account, you can contact us at support@dropbox.com.</span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border- outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline- line-height: 1.8; text-align: left; color:initial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" color: rgb(54, 54, 54); font-size:medium;">This should never have happened. We are scrutinizing our controls and we will be implementing additional safeguards to prevent this from happening again."</span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border- outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline- line-height: 1.8; text-align: left; color:initial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" color: rgb(54, 54, 54); font-size:medium;">Based upon Thinq.com's estimates, this "very small number of users" equates to approximately 250,000 Dropbox account holders. Not such a small number some would argue.</span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border- outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline- line-height: 1.8; text-align: left; color:initial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">What issues does this incident raise:</span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline- line-height: 1.8; text-align: left; color:initial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">1. Firstly, on the internet, as on corporate servers and home computers, there are always threats to data security. The category that usually gets mentioned the media is <a href="http://www.thinq.co.uk/2011/6/21/lulzsec-mastermind-arrested-essex/">malicious attacks</a> such as hacking. But, human error, such as typified by this story, is another <a href="http://www.itpro.co.uk/115920/human-error-biggest-threat-to-computer-security">significant</a> category. </span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline- line-height: 1.8; text-align: left; color:initial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">2. When internet-based companies undertake a risk analysis, they should never underestimate the impact on reputation. Take these two comments posted by users on Dropbox's blog:</span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline- line-height: 1.8; text-align: left; color:initial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">"</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 17px; font-family:'Lucida Grande', Tahoma, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Dropbox, what are you doing? You're screwing up your brand and reputation."</span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline- line-height: 1.8; text-align: left; color:initial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 17px; font-family:'Lucida Grande', Tahoma, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">"</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 17px; font-family:'Lucida Grande', Tahoma, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">The effect is not on data security but on PERCEPTION of data security. I am trying to convince not-for-profit boards/committees and small companies to get onto cloud-based solutions for info sharing & productivity gain. I am already dealing with 'oldies' who are still coping with email. This will send the debate backwards 6 months."</span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline- line-height: 1.8; text-align: left; color:initial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 17px; font-family:'Lucida Grande', Tahoma, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">3. It highlights the importance of program and systems testing. This is a key operational system for the Dropbox company and they might be advised to take a cautious, risk-adverse approach to this type of system. That means clear identification of the problem, a good change control system, and exhaustive testing before putting the the amended code live. This issue was also identified by those commenting on the Dropbox site:</span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline- line-height: 1.8; text-align: left; color:initial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 17px; font-family:'Lucida Grande', Tahoma, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">"</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 17px; font-family:'Lucida Grande', Tahoma, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Hey Dropbox, it's all about QA'ing that code, boys & girls. We've all made mind-numbingly stupid errors, but with systems that touch as many people as yours, you have to test for stuff like this."</span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline- line-height: 1.8; text-align: left; color:initial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 17px; font-family:'Lucida Grande', Tahoma, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">"</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 17px; font-family:'Lucida Grande', Tahoma, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">It was a inexcusable bug, not an attack or something like that. Nobody is perfect but a few things are inexcusable because such a simple but serious bug simply shows carelessness and missig unit test. It is that simple."</span></span></p><p style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline- line-height: 1.8; text-align: left; color:initial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 17px; font-family:'Lucida Grande', Tahoma, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">It seems that, sadly, not every internet cloud has a silver lining.</span></span></p></span>daveghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03419824593002430613noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7408770107544742525.post-28312552588820886462011-06-18T05:24:00.000-07:002011-06-18T09:35:00.010-07:00Barnsley computing student is accused of digital piracy in the USA Barnsley computing student has been accused of breaking US copyright law, even though he lives in the UK, runs a website that contains no copyrighted files and the website is held on a server that is not based in the US.<br /><div><br /></div><div>The story <a href="http://www.justice.gov/usao/nys/pressreleases/June10/websitedomainnameseizurepr.pdf">begins</a> in the Manhattan Federal Court on 30th June, 2010. This court authorised the seizure of seven websites for copyright infringements. The sites were all allegedly involved in the illegal sharing of American films over the internet. </div><div><br /></div><div>One of these websites was <a href="http://tvshack.net/index.html">TVshack.net</a>, a site set up by a Barnsley student, Richard O'Dwyer, who is studying computing at <a href="http://www.shu.ac.uk/prospectus/subject/6/">Sheffield Hallam University</a>. </div><div><br /></div><div>According to the US Attorney: "TVSHACK.NET, also a linking site, advertises itself as</div><div>a user-friendly video sharing site. TVSHACK.NET's homepage contains a list of the seven movies and television shows -- all copyrighted and being distributed by TVSHACK.NET without authorization -- that are most popular with the website's users. Among the most popular copyrighted movies and shows distributed by TVSHACK.NET, each of which are viewed thousands, and sometimes tens of thousands, of times per day, are "Sex and the City 2,"</div><div>"The A Team," "Get Him To The Greek," and "Iron Man 2." TVSHACK.NET had approximately 486,000 visitors per month as of May 2010."</div><div><br /></div><div>O'Dyer was arrested last month at the request of the American court and now faces extradition to the US. This will take place under the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extradition_Act_2003">controversial</a> 2003 extradition agreement with the US. This allows UK citizens to be extradited to the US if they have committed an offence under US Law without providing any reciprocal arrangement for the UK. If O'Dwyer is convicted, he is likely to spend <a href="http://www.thestar.co.uk/news/local/sheffield_student_faces_jail_in_america_over_movie_clips_on_website_1_3479234">5 years</a> in prison in the States.</div><div><br /></div><div>O'Dwyer's site contained no files that were under the copyright of any corporation. It merely provided links to copies of these films. The server containing the site was not in America. Moreover, some <a href="http://www.slightlyrightofcentre.com/2011/06/richard-odwyer-extradition-to-us-for-uk.html#comments">commentators</a> doubt whether he has committed an offence under UK law. According to the Open Digital Policy Organisation:</div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 20px; font-family:Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;font-size:15px;"> "If no offence has been committed under UK law, there is no victim. It's as simple as that - because with copyright, different rules apply in different countries."</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 20px; font-family:Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;font-size:15px;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 20px; font-family:Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;font-size:15px;">O'Dwyer spend one night in prison before being bailed. He next appears in court in London on 12th September.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 20px; font-family:Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;font-size:15px;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 20px; font-family:Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;font-size:15px;">This case raises numerous questions:</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 20px; font-family:Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;font-size:15px;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 20px; font-family:Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;font-size:15px;">Why hasn't the UK Government amended the 2003 extradition treaty to give UK citizens the same rights as their American counterparts?</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 20px; font-family:Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;font-size:15px;">How can copyright be infringed on a site that contains no copyrighted material?</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 20px; font-family:Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;font-size:15px;">Why shouldn't this case be tried in this country?</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 20px; font-family:Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;font-size:15px;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 20px; font-family:Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;font-size:15px;">UK Computing schools should petition to have the case heard in this country.</span></div>daveghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03419824593002430613noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7408770107544742525.post-30106193211919975082011-06-18T04:18:00.000-07:002011-06-18T04:19:26.821-07:00<!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial"><b>Organizing for disruptive innovation in a local authority<o:p></o:p></b></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial"><b> <o:p></o:p></b></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><!--[if supportFields]><span lang="EN-US"><b><span style="'mso-element:field-begin'"></span></b></span><span lang="EN-US" style="'font-family:Arial'"><b><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>CONTACT _Con-3BD2651E1 \c \s \l </b></span><span lang="EN-US"><b><span style="'mso-element:field-separator'"></span></b></span><![endif]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial"><b>David Griffin</b></span><!--[if supportFields]><span lang="EN-US"><b><span style="'mso-element:field-end'"></span></b></span><![endif]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial"><b><o:p></o:p></b></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial"><b>Leeds Metropolitan University<o:p></o:p></b></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial"><b> <o:p></o:p></b></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial"><b>Abstract <o:p></o:p></b></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial">Innovation has been a pubic administration priority throughout the past decade. A key issue that is still the subject of debate is how to organize resources in order to manage such innovation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Christensen (1997) distinguishes between ‘sustaining’ and ‘disruptive’ innovation. It is suggested that councils have developed structures and capabilities to undertake the sustaining type of innovation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>However, these capabilities can become impediments when faced with disruptive change.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The contribution of this paper is a proposed framework for organizing for disruptive innovation by local authorities.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The empirical basis of the article is a case study of disruptive innovation in a North of England council.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The innovation capability model (Lawson and Samson, 2001) is used to analyze the case study and is extended in two ways: firstly, to identify distinct characteristics for sustaining and disruptive innovation and, secondly, by proposing a bridging role to accommodate the duality caused by separate innovation streams.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial"><b>Key words</b></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial">: Disruptive innovation, local government, organizing for innovation<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial"><b>1. Introduction<o:p></o:p></b></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top:0cm;margin-right:35.1pt;margin-bottom:0cm;margin-left:1.0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial">“The findings stand out more and more clearly as the evidence rolls in: whenever a practical innovation has occurred, a skunkwork, usually a nucleus of 6-25 people, has been at the heart of it.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Peters (2004).<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial">Innovation has been a pubic administration priority throughout the past decade.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Central and local government have transformed services through a programme of change based upon e-government technologies.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Environmental drivers, such as new policy priorities, changing citizen expectations, technological developments and, latterly, the global credit crunch, have shaped this<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>innovation.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Most developments have been introduced to ‘sustain customer value’ (Christensen, 1997), rolling out service improvements perceived to be of value to the existing client base for the particular administration.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Many councils have developed a bureaucratic structure and resource capabilities that are well-suited to meet this challenge.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>However, periodically, when environmental conditions alter significantly (a ‘paradigm shift’), for example opening up new ‘markets’ for a local authority to serve, the organizational structure, capabilities and culture that so well served for sustaining innovation, become impediments.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>The innovator’s dilemma is how to organize for this disruptive change (Christensen, 1997).<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial">The contribution of this paper is a framework for organizing for disruptive innovation by local authorities.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>It reviews the existing literature on organizing for innovation, which has mainly investigated private sector operations.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>From this it develops a framework that it is appropriate for disruptive innovation in local government. The empirical basis of the article is a case study of disruptive innovation in a North of England council.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>This case study is used to explore the limitations of existing theory in this area and to propose the extensions to it represented in the framework. The framework is applied to the case study in order to gain insight into the tensions introduced by a council undertaking sustaining and disruptive innovation concurrently.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial"><b><i> <o:p></o:p></i></b></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial"><b>2. Review of the literature on organizing for innovation<o:p></o:p></b></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial">The term ‘innovation’ is used in many ways, highlighting the lack of definitional agreement amongst scholars and practitioners.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Some definitions emphasize the perception of newness of the idea by its recipients (e.g Rogers, 1995).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Others give prominence to the implementation aspect, stressing the need for an innovation to be successful (DIUS, 2008). However, it is generally agreed that innovation, in essence, comprises of two components: creativity and implementation (Besant and Tidd, 2007; von Stamm, 2008).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Creativity is required from some of the actors within the social context to initiate, design and develop a product, service or process that would be perceived as new by its likely recipients.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>This idea also needs to be diffused amongst the recipient actors in the target social setting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>To be considered an innovation, it probably also needs to be perceived as a success by powerful stakeholders in this setting. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial">A key issue that is still the subject of debate is how to organize resources in order to manage innovation (Bessant, 2005; Pettigrew and Fenton, 2000). The innovator’s dilemma, according to Christensen (1997), is that successful organizations have developed the capability to excel at the ‘sustaining’ type of innovation, but these competencies are the very impediments that prevent them from introducing ‘disruptive’ innovation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Bessant (2005) suggests that the public sector has considerable experience of disruptive, or to use his term, discontinuous, innovation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>This article takes a contradictory viewpoint.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>It is argued here that local authorities are used to responding to disruptive innovation led by central government.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>In this case, government policymakers have provided the majority of the creativity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>There are far fewer examples of disruptive innovation generated by a local authority, in which it plays a leading role throughout the innovation process.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial">An organizational approach that has been successful in undertaking disruptive innovation in some private sector settings is the ‘skunkworks’ approach (Bessant, 2005; Peters, 2004).<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>A skunkworks is a small group of creative individuals that has been set up with the sole purpose of innovating on behalf of the company.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The individuals are usually selected from the mainstream business.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>But they operate within different constraints.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>An enterprising culture is established that cuts across the mainstream processes, values and norms of the parent organization. The culture and politics of public administration sometimes impede innovation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Consequently, the establishment of an innovation hub, operating in an enterprising micro-culture, might be a one way of increasing innovation in the sector.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial">Burns and Stalker (1961) conducted one of the pioneering studies of the sociology of work.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Based upon an empirical investigation of companies and government agencies in the UK, they identified two ‘ideal types’ for organizing the workforce: ‘mechanistic’, which is suitable for operating in a stable environment and ‘organic’ which is more appropriate for those attempting to innovate in a changing environment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial">Others (e.g. van der Van and Poole, 1995) have suggested that that the situation is more complex than that presented by Burns and Stalker.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Organizations need to respond to a duality: how to successfully allocate some resources to the steady-state, low risk operation of the mainstream business whilst concurrently allocating other resources to the risky, prospective innovation of newstream products and services.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The former might be suited to a mechanistic organization and the latter requiring an organic set up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Moreover, the management of mainstream business should be separate from newstream activity (Kantner, 1989).<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial">A recent school of thought in the strategic management field adopts the resource-based view of organizations (Prahalad and Hamel, 1990).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>From this perspective, it is possible to identify a range of competencies required to manage the duality of mainstream and newstream activities.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Lawson and Samson (2001) proposed the innovation capability model as a framework for evaluating the ‘key mechanism(s) for stimulating, measuring and reinforcing innovation’ (p388) in an organization.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial"><span style="mso-field-code:"SHAPE \\* MERGEFORMAT";mso-field-lock:yes"><!--[if gte 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style="'font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-ansi-language:EN-GB'">Knowledge<o:p></o:p></span></p> </div> <![if !mso]></td> </tr> </table> <![endif]></v:textbox> </v:shape><v:shape id="_x0000_s1043" type="#_x0000_t202" style="'position:absolute;" stroked="f"> <v:textbox> <![if !mso]> <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"> <tr> <td><![endif]> <div> <p class="MsoNormal" align="right" style="'text-align:right'"><span style="'font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-ansi-language:EN-GB'">Knowledge<o:p></o:p></span></p> </div> <![if !mso]></td> </tr> </table> <![endif]></v:textbox> </v:shape><v:shape id="_x0000_s1044" type="#_x0000_t202" style="'position:absolute;" stroked="f"> <v:textbox> <![if !mso]> <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"> <tr> <td><![endif]> <div> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="'font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial;">Raw materials<o:p></o:p></span></p> </div> <![if !mso]></td> </tr> </table> <![endif]></v:textbox> </v:shape><v:shape 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1]><v:shape id="_x0000_i1025" type="#_x0000_t75" style="'width:6in;height:252pt'"> <v:imagedata croptop="-65520f" cropbottom="65520f"> <o:lock ext="edit" rotation="t" position="t"> </v:shape><![endif]--><img width="432" height="252" src="file://localhost/Users/griffi03/Library/Caches/TemporaryItems/msoclip1/01/clip_image002.png" shapes="_x0000_i1025" /></span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:8.0pt;font-family:Arial"><b>Figure 1: The innovation capability model (Lawson and Samson, 2001)<o:p></o:p></b></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:8.0pt;font-family:Arial"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial">The innovation capability comprises of a range of elements that combine to form the capacity to undertake successful newstream innovation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>These elements are described in Table 1.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial">One criticism that could be leveled at Lawson and Samson’s innovation capability framework is the extent to which it is suitable for all types of innovation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>It has been argued that successful companies establish, over a period of time, the capabilities which equip them to undertake newstream activity to meet the ongoing needs of its top-end customers. Such activity has been variously labeled as ‘sustaining’ (Christensen, 1997), ‘steady-state’ (Bessant, 2005) or ‘customer-driven’ (Dodgson, Gann and Salter, 2005) innovation.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <table border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" style="border-collapse:collapse; border:none;mso-border-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt"> <tbody><tr> <td width="83" valign="top" style="width:83.4pt;border:solid windowtext .5pt; padding:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial"><b>Innovation capability element<o:p></o:p></b></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial"><b><o:p></o:p></b></span></p> </td> <td width="284" valign="top" style="width:10.0cm;border:solid windowtext .5pt; border-left:none;mso-border-left-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;padding:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial"><b>Description<o:p></o:p></b></span></p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="83" valign="top" style="width:83.4pt;border:solid windowtext .5pt; border-top:none;mso-border-top-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;padding:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial">Strategy<o:p></o:p></span></p> </td> <td width="284" valign="top" style="width:10.0cm;border-top:none;border-left: none;border-bottom:solid windowtext .5pt;border-right:solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;mso-border-left-alt:solid windowtext .5pt; padding:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial">The vision and strategy required for responding to the changing business environment.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial"><o:p></o:p></span></p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="83" valign="top" style="width:83.4pt;border:solid windowtext .5pt; border-top:none;mso-border-top-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;padding:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial">Competence base<o:p></o:p></span></p> </td> <td width="284" valign="top" style="width:10.0cm;border-top:none;border-left: none;border-bottom:solid windowtext .5pt;border-right:solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;mso-border-left-alt:solid windowtext .5pt; padding:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial">The ability to harness and manage the various resource types that form the inputs to the mainstream and newstream processes.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial"><o:p></o:p></span></p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="83" valign="top" style="width:83.4pt;border:solid windowtext .5pt; border-top:none;mso-border-top-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;padding:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial">Organizational intelligence<o:p></o:p></span></p> </td> <td width="284" valign="top" style="width:10.0cm;border-top:none;border-left: none;border-bottom:solid windowtext .5pt;border-right:solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;mso-border-left-alt:solid windowtext .5pt; padding:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial">The ability to process external information relating to the market (mainly concerning customers and competitors) and environmental drivers.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial"><o:p></o:p></span></p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="83" valign="top" style="width:83.4pt;border:solid windowtext .5pt; border-top:none;mso-border-top-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;padding:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial">Creativity management<o:p></o:p></span></p> </td> <td width="284" valign="top" style="width:10.0cm;border-top:none;border-left: none;border-bottom:solid windowtext .5pt;border-right:solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;mso-border-left-alt:solid windowtext .5pt; padding:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial">The ability to encourage and manage divergent thinking leading to the development of new business ideas concerning processes, products, services and so on.<o:p></o:p></span></p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="83" valign="top" style="width:83.4pt;border:solid windowtext .5pt; border-top:none;mso-border-top-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;padding:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial">Structuring<o:p></o:p></span></p> </td> <td width="284" valign="top" style="width:10.0cm;border-top:none;border-left: none;border-bottom:solid windowtext .5pt;border-right:solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;mso-border-left-alt:solid windowtext .5pt; padding:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial">The adoption of appropriate organizational structures for fostering innovation.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial"><o:p></o:p></span></p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="83" valign="top" style="width:83.4pt;border:solid windowtext .5pt; border-top:none;mso-border-top-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;padding:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial">Culture <o:p></o:p></span></p> </td> <td width="284" valign="top" style="width:10.0cm;border-top:none;border-left: none;border-bottom:solid windowtext .5pt;border-right:solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;mso-border-left-alt:solid windowtext .5pt; padding:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial">The development of a culture that is conducive to innovation.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial"><o:p></o:p></span></p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="83" valign="top" style="width:83.4pt;border:solid windowtext .5pt; border-top:none;mso-border-top-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;padding:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial">Management of technology<o:p></o:p></span></p> </td> <td width="284" valign="top" style="width:10.0cm;border-top:none;border-left: none;border-bottom:solid windowtext .5pt;border-right:solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;mso-border-left-alt:solid windowtext .5pt; padding:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial">The ability to align technology strategy with overall business strategy<o:p></o:p></span></p> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial">Table 1: The elements of the innovation capability (</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:8.0pt;font-family:Arial">Lawson and Samson, 2001</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial">)<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial">The innovation capability for making newstream innovation decisions will be shaped by the environment in which the mainstream business is conducted.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>What if environmental conditions change to such a degree that new market opportunities arise and new types of customer groups are available? The so-called ‘innovator’s delemma’ is how to organize to cope with such disruptive change.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The steady-state innovation capability will be incapable of producing the newstream innovation required in this situation (Christensen, 1997)<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial">A second criticism is that the model pays no regard to the role of internal politics in innovation.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Politics and power will feature in any social setting in which decisions are made over the allocation of finite resources amongst competing actors (Burns and Stalker, 1961; Pfeffer, 1992). <b><o:p></o:p></b></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial"><b> <o:p></o:p></b></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial"><b>3. Methodology<o:p></o:p></b></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial">Research does not always progress in a linear fashion from data-gathering to analysis and conclusions.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Following the approach espoused by Fenton and Pettigrew (2000), this research has progressed in a more tentative cyclical manner.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>It started with an initial review or relevant literature, but was then driven by what the interviewees had to say about disruptive innovation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>This informed the choice of outline frameworks from the literature.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>But, as the research has developed, the analysis using the frameworks has raised questions that led back to the data and the re-exploration of the data has challenged the assumptions behind the emerging enhanced framework.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial">This paper explores the following research questions:<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial">How might a local authority organize for disruptive and sustaining types of innovation?<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial">What are the organizational and managerial implications of a attempting to pursue both types of innovation concurrently?<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial">These questions will be examined using the case study method.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>A case study will be presented of an innovation incubator unit set up in a large English metropolitan council. For the purposes of discussion, we shall refer to this organizational unit as <i>Metro Innovation Team (MIT)</i></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial">. The case study method is particularly appropriate for dealing with contemporary situations in which the intervention is difficult to distinguish from its context (Yin, 2003).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>This is certainly the situation with regard to the case being studied in this paper.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>One of the most significant characteristics leading to its eventual demise is the intriguing interplay between the intervention and its context.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial">The case study method uses a variety of data sources to investigate a situation (Keddie, 2006).<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Table 2 summarises the phases of the study and the various methods employed.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <table border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" style="border-collapse:collapse; border:none;mso-border-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt"> <tbody><tr style="height:17.95pt"> <td width="62" valign="top" style="width:62.1pt;border:solid windowtext .5pt; padding:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt;height:17.95pt"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial"><b>Phase<o:p></o:p></b></span></p> </td> <td width="106" valign="top" style="width:106.35pt;border:solid windowtext .5pt; border-left:none;mso-border-left-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;padding:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; height:17.95pt"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial"><b>Purpose<o:p></o:p></b></span></p> </td> <td width="274" valign="top" style="width:274.35pt;border:solid windowtext .5pt; border-left:none;mso-border-left-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;padding:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; height:17.95pt"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial"><b>Methods employed<o:p></o:p></b></span></p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="62" valign="top" style="width:62.1pt;border:solid windowtext .5pt; border-top:none;mso-border-top-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;padding:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial">2005<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Phase I<o:p></o:p></span></p> </td> <td width="106" valign="top" style="width:106.35pt;border-top:none;border-left: none;border-bottom:solid windowtext .5pt;border-right:solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;mso-border-left-alt:solid windowtext .5pt; padding:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial">Familiarisation with the intervention and its context<o:p></o:p></span></p> </td> <td width="274" valign="top" style="width:274.35pt;border-top:none;border-left: none;border-bottom:solid windowtext .5pt;border-right:solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;mso-border-left-alt:solid windowtext .5pt; padding:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial">Informal discussions with MIT staff and ICT staff.<o:p></o:p></span></p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="62" valign="top" style="width:62.1pt;border:solid windowtext .5pt; border-top:none;mso-border-top-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;padding:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial">2007<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Phase II<o:p></o:p></span></p> </td> <td width="106" valign="top" style="width:106.35pt;border-top:none;border-left: none;border-bottom:solid windowtext .5pt;border-right:solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;mso-border-left-alt:solid windowtext .5pt; padding:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial">Observation of the intervention in operation<o:p></o:p></span></p> </td> <td width="274" valign="top" style="width:274.35pt;border-top:none;border-left: none;border-bottom:solid windowtext .5pt;border-right:solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;mso-border-left-alt:solid windowtext .5pt; padding:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial">Observation of MIT staff interacting with other local authorities attending their stand at a major public sector conference.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Initial (unrecorded) interview with Interviewee One about the reasons for establishing the unit and some of the contextual issues.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial"><o:p></o:p></span></p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="62" valign="top" style="width:62.1pt;border:solid windowtext .5pt; border-top:none;mso-border-top-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;padding:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial">2008 Phase III<o:p></o:p></span></p> </td> <td width="106" valign="top" style="width:106.35pt;border-top:none;border-left: none;border-bottom:solid windowtext .5pt;border-right:solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;mso-border-left-alt:solid windowtext .5pt; padding:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial">Understanding of the change of direction<o:p></o:p></span></p> </td> <td width="274" valign="top" style="width:274.35pt;border-top:none;border-left: none;border-bottom:solid windowtext .5pt;border-right:solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;mso-border-left-alt:solid windowtext .5pt; padding:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial">Unrecorded discussion with MIT staff regarding the change from being an incubator unit to an innovation consultancy.<o:p></o:p></span></p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="62" valign="top" style="width:62.1pt;border:solid windowtext .5pt; border-top:none;mso-border-top-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;padding:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial">2009 Phase IV<o:p></o:p></span></p> </td> <td width="106" valign="top" style="width:106.35pt;border-top:none;border-left: none;border-bottom:solid windowtext .5pt;border-right:solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;mso-border-left-alt:solid windowtext .5pt; padding:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial">Critical analysis of Metro Innovator<o:p></o:p></span></p> </td> <td width="274" valign="top" style="width:274.35pt;border-top:none;border-left: none;border-bottom:solid windowtext .5pt;border-right:solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;mso-border-left-alt:solid windowtext .5pt; padding:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial">One-hour interviews with the four staff most closely associated with the establishment, strategy, operation and closure of MIT.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Analysis of documents and web source material related to the case study and the participants in it.<o:p></o:p></span></p> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial">Table 2: The project phases and methods<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial">The range of methods employed – observation, informal discussions, semi-structured interviews and document analysis – have contributed to the methodological triangulation of findings needed to produce reliable results (Jupp, 2006 ; Fenton and Pettigrew, 2000).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Some of the informal discussions and document analyses provided the rich context and background to the later empirical phases of the study.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The formal interviews, in particular, were repeatedly examined to elicit patterns and recurring themes discussed within individual interviews and across the complete sample of interviews.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Table 3 lists the case interviewees and highlights participants’ roles prior to, during and after MIT.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The interviewees were selected using ‘snowball’ sampling (Jupp, 2006).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>At the end of each interview, the respondent was asked who should be interviewed next to help develop an understanding of the wider context of ICT Services and the ‘intervention’, MIT itself.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <table border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" style="border-collapse:collapse; border:none;mso-border-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt"> <tbody><tr> <td width="66" valign="top" style="width:65.85pt;border:solid windowtext .5pt; padding:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial">Interviewee<o:p></o:p></span></p> </td> <td width="129" valign="top" style="width:128.75pt;border:solid windowtext .5pt; border-left:none;mso-border-left-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;padding:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial">Role prior to the establishment of MIT<o:p></o:p></span></p> </td> <td width="111" valign="top" style="width:110.95pt;border:solid windowtext .5pt; border-left:none;mso-border-left-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;padding:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial">Role during MIT<o:p></o:p></span></p> </td> <td width="137" valign="top" style="width:137.25pt;border:solid windowtext .5pt; border-left:none;mso-border-left-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;padding:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial">Role following the demise of MIT<o:p></o:p></span></p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="66" valign="top" style="width:65.85pt;border:solid windowtext .5pt; border-top:none;mso-border-top-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;padding:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial">Interviewee One<o:p></o:p></span></p> </td> <td width="129" valign="top" style="width:128.75pt;border-top:none;border-left: none;border-bottom:solid windowtext .5pt;border-right:solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;mso-border-left-alt:solid windowtext .5pt; padding:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial">Head of ICT reporting to the Director of Resources<o:p></o:p></span></p> </td> <td width="111" valign="top" style="width:110.95pt;border-top:none;border-left: none;border-bottom:solid windowtext .5pt;border-right:solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;mso-border-left-alt:solid windowtext .5pt; padding:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial">Head of ICT and line manager for the Head of MIT<o:p></o:p></span></p> </td> <td width="137" valign="top" style="width:137.25pt;border-top:none;border-left: none;border-bottom:solid windowtext .5pt;border-right:solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;mso-border-left-alt:solid windowtext .5pt; padding:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial">Head of Service but no longer has any responsibility for ICT Services<o:p></o:p></span></p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="66" valign="top" style="width:65.85pt;border:solid windowtext .5pt; border-top:none;mso-border-top-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;padding:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial">Interviewee Two <o:p></o:p></span></p> </td> <td width="129" valign="top" style="width:128.75pt;border-top:none;border-left: none;border-bottom:solid windowtext .5pt;border-right:solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;mso-border-left-alt:solid windowtext .5pt; padding:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial">IT Services Manager reporting to Head of ICT.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> </td> <td width="111" valign="top" style="width:110.95pt;border-top:none;border-left: none;border-bottom:solid windowtext .5pt;border-right:solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;mso-border-left-alt:solid windowtext .5pt; padding:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial">Head of MIT<o:p></o:p></span></p> </td> <td width="137" valign="top" style="width:137.25pt;border-top:none;border-left: none;border-bottom:solid windowtext .5pt;border-right:solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;mso-border-left-alt:solid windowtext .5pt; padding:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial">Commercial director of a technology company serving the public sector<o:p></o:p></span></p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="66" valign="top" style="width:65.85pt;border:solid windowtext .5pt; border-top:none;mso-border-top-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;padding:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial">Interviewee Three<o:p></o:p></span></p> </td> <td width="129" valign="top" style="width:128.75pt;border-top:none;border-left: none;border-bottom:solid windowtext .5pt;border-right:solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;mso-border-left-alt:solid windowtext .5pt; padding:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial">Business Consultant reporting to the IT Services Manager. <o:p></o:p></span></p> </td> <td width="111" valign="top" style="width:110.95pt;border-top:none;border-left: none;border-bottom:solid windowtext .5pt;border-right:solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;mso-border-left-alt:solid windowtext .5pt; padding:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial">MIT Business Consultant<o:p></o:p></span></p> </td> <td width="137" valign="top" style="width:137.25pt;border-top:none;border-left: none;border-bottom:solid windowtext .5pt;border-right:solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;mso-border-left-alt:solid windowtext .5pt; padding:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial">Business Consultant within ICT Services<o:p></o:p></span></p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="66" valign="top" style="width:65.85pt;border:solid windowtext .5pt; border-top:none;mso-border-top-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;padding:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial">Interviewee Four<o:p></o:p></span></p> </td> <td width="129" valign="top" style="width:128.75pt;border-top:none;border-left: none;border-bottom:solid windowtext .5pt;border-right:solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;mso-border-left-alt:solid windowtext .5pt; padding:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial">Service Manager reporting to the Head of ICT.<o:p></o:p></span></p> </td> <td width="111" valign="top" style="width:110.95pt;border-top:none;border-left: none;border-bottom:solid windowtext .5pt;border-right:solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;mso-border-left-alt:solid windowtext .5pt; padding:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial">Service Manager and then, latterly, Head of ICT.<o:p></o:p></span></p> </td> <td width="137" valign="top" style="width:137.25pt;border-top:none;border-left: none;border-bottom:solid windowtext .5pt;border-right:solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;mso-border-left-alt:solid windowtext .5pt; padding:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial">Head of ICT <o:p></o:p></span></p> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:9.0pt;font-family:Arial">Table 3: The case study interviewees<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial"><b>4. The case study organization<o:p></o:p></b></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial">Metro Council is a large metropolitan local authority in the North of England. It is the sole tier of local government in its administrative area. The council completed its e-government service transformation, a major series of technology-based innovations, in the timescale stipulated by central government.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Its e-government portfolio incorporated both product and process innovations. A complexity of public sector innovation is the difficulty of distinguishing between product and process innovations.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Most service developments are a mixture of both of these.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>For example, when Metro Council introduced web-based application forms for requesting services online, these were predominantly product innovations.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>But some of the forms’ projects also featured the redesign of back-end processes.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>The customer call centre established by Metro Council is a second example.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>This process innovation brought together staff previously distributed throughout the council.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Nevertheless, a vital component of this change project was the new computer system that provided call centre staff with an integrated information base (a product innovation).<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial">It is argued that most of the e-government innovations at Metro Council were of the sustaining type.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Sustaining innovation is often introduced to add new functionality for ‘top-end’ customers (Christensen, 1997).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>In this case, the ‘top-end’ customers which benefited from the e-government services were digitally- engaged residents and businesses.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The programme provided little assistance to ‘lower-level’ residents experiencing the ‘wicked issues’ of life who, predominantly, reside on the other side of the digital divide.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>This may in part explain the low take-up of online services by residents.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Applying selected characteristics from the innovation capability model to this sustaining type of innovation results in the summary found in Table 4. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <table border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" style="border-collapse:collapse; border:none;mso-border-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt"> <tbody><tr> <td width="112" valign="top" style="width:111.75pt;border:solid windowtext .5pt; padding:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial"><b>Innovation capability element<o:p></o:p></b></span></p> </td> <td width="331" valign="top" style="width:331.05pt;border:solid windowtext .5pt; border-left:none;mso-border-left-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;padding:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial"><b>Discussion<o:p></o:p></b></span></p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="112" valign="top" style="width:111.75pt;border:solid windowtext .5pt; border-top:none;mso-border-top-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;padding:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial">Culture<o:p></o:p></span></p> </td> <td width="331" valign="top" style="width:331.05pt;border-top:none;border-left: none;border-bottom:solid windowtext .5pt;border-right:solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;mso-border-left-alt:solid windowtext .5pt; padding:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial">The Council had a traditional culture: hierarchical, command and control oriented. One of the interviewees summed this up as a ‘late 1970’s/early 18980’s’ culture. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial"><o:p></o:p></span></p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="112" valign="top" style="width:111.75pt;border:solid windowtext .5pt; border-top:none;mso-border-top-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;padding:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial">Competence base<o:p></o:p></span></p> </td> <td width="331" valign="top" style="width:331.05pt;border-top:none;border-left: none;border-bottom:solid windowtext .5pt;border-right:solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;mso-border-left-alt:solid windowtext .5pt; padding:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial">Within IT, it had one senior officer who had extensive experience in the private sector and was perceived to be good at spotting technological advances that might be beneficial for the council.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The Head of IT at the time was someone who had previously set up a newstream organization for ‘disruptive’ innovation in a previous local authority for which she had worked.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>It was her belief that disruptive innovation needed to occur in a ‘bubble’ with a separate culture from the mainstream organization.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial">A £350.000 bid for funding of MIT from the government was successful.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>A key success factor in winning this, the team felt, was the visibility they had obtained by developing MIT’s initial innovation, the digital pen for council field workers. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial"><o:p></o:p></span></p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="112" valign="top" style="width:111.75pt;border:solid windowtext .5pt; border-top:none;mso-border-top-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;padding:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial">Organizational structure<o:p></o:p></span></p> </td> <td width="331" valign="top" style="width:331.05pt;border-top:none;border-left: none;border-bottom:solid windowtext .5pt;border-right:solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;mso-border-left-alt:solid windowtext .5pt; padding:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial">The council operated several large service departments with a central IT department of 350+ staff.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>All technology projects began by using traditional IT development approaches.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>A viable business case was required and requirements were elicited before the development and implementation of an innovation.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial"><o:p></o:p></span></p> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial"><b>Table 4: Innovation capability 1: dealing with sustaining innovation<o:p></o:p></b></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;tab-stops:145.0pt"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial"><span style="mso-tab-count:1"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial">In 2005/06, Metro Council established a ‘skunkworks’ organization, MIT, to develop new products and services for both internal consumption and for marketing to the wider public sector.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>There were several drivers for this change.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Externally, new market opportunities were opening up, as the legislative restriction on trading outside of home geographical areas was removed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Internally, staff were available with the experience and competencies suited to taking advantage of these opportunities.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>This organizational development was a disruptive innovation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>It required a different innovation capability to that needed for sustaining innovation. The competencies required for this type of innovation are summarized in Table 5. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial">Tables 4 and 5 illustrate the first proposed extension to the innovation capability model: rather than there being a single set of innovation capabilities, different competencies are required for sustaining and disruptive innovation streams within an organization.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <table border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" style="border-collapse:collapse; border:none;mso-border-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt"> <tbody><tr> <td width="76" valign="top" style="width:76.3pt;border:solid windowtext .5pt; padding:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial"><b>Innovation capability element<o:p></o:p></b></span></p> </td> <td width="367" valign="top" style="width:366.5pt;border:solid windowtext .5pt; border-left:none;mso-border-left-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;padding:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial"><b>Discussion<o:p></o:p></b></span></p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="76" valign="top" style="width:76.3pt;border:solid windowtext .5pt; border-top:none;mso-border-top-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;padding:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial">Strategy<o:p></o:p></span></p> </td> <td width="367" valign="top" style="width:366.5pt;border-top:none;border-left: none;border-bottom:solid windowtext .5pt;border-right:solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;mso-border-left-alt:solid windowtext .5pt; padding:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial">The interviewees identified a range of strategic issues associated with the establishment of MIT.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>For example, interviewee 1 mentioned the following: to embed innovation within the organization; to raise the confidence of the ICT department in exploring new technologies <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial">By contrast, interviewee 4 suggested that MIT ‘came about by accident’.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>It was set up to exploit the competencies of a particular individual whose strengths were underused in his then post. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial">MIT’s business strategy was to create value from the privileged position occupied by Metro Council.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>For example, the companies helping to develop a narrowcasting project were informed that MIT would not pay them for this.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>But this large council would become their demonstration site.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Furthermore, MIT would pro-actively recommend the companies to other public sector organizations.<o:p></o:p></span></p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="76" valign="top" style="width:76.3pt;border:solid windowtext .5pt; border-top:none;mso-border-top-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;padding:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial">Competence base<o:p></o:p></span></p> </td> <td width="367" valign="top" style="width:366.5pt;border-top:none;border-left: none;border-bottom:solid windowtext .5pt;border-right:solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;mso-border-left-alt:solid windowtext .5pt; padding:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial">The Head of MIT is mentioned repeatedly by name during the interviews (e.g. he is mentioned seven times by interviewee 1 and eleven times by interviewee 4). If, somewhat simplistically, we divide an innovation project into two phases, creativity and implementation, then this individual was particularly adept at the creativity phase.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>He had previous private sector experience of delivering innovation during the ‘dot com’ boom.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>His commercial acumen distinguished him from most local government officers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>He was good at spotting technological advances worthy of exploitation and had a ‘massive personality’ (interviewee 1). However, he lacked the political nouse for dealing with the people issues that were likely to arise during the implementation of disruptive technology. <o:p></o:p></span></p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="76" valign="top" style="width:76.3pt;border:solid windowtext .5pt; border-top:none;mso-border-top-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;padding:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial">Creativity management<o:p></o:p></span></p> </td> <td width="367" valign="top" style="width:366.5pt;border-top:none;border-left: none;border-bottom:solid windowtext .5pt;border-right:solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;mso-border-left-alt:solid windowtext .5pt; padding:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial">MIT adopted an entrepreneurial approach to creativity management, undertaking projects with a higher risk element than would normally be the case.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>It was accepted that some projects would fail.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Their research was not constrained by precedent. It could also develop ideas quickly without awaiting for agreement through the traditional council structure.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="76" valign="top" style="width:76.3pt;border:solid windowtext .5pt; border-top:none;mso-border-top-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;padding:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial">Organizational structure<o:p></o:p></span></p> </td> <td width="367" valign="top" style="width:366.5pt;border-top:none;border-left: none;border-bottom:solid windowtext .5pt;border-right:solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;mso-border-left-alt:solid windowtext .5pt; padding:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial">The MIT structure was an organic structure (Burns and Stalker, 1961).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>It was ‘business-oriented’ rather than having a technical focus. (Interviewee 2: “We sought to draw a straight line between ourselves and the objective”). Key staff had fluid roles (Interviewee 2: “Everyone else was charged with responsibilities; we set our own agenda”) and greater autonomy than elsewhere in the council (e.g. Interviewee 3 was the only officer of his rank to be issued with a corporate credit card).<o:p></o:p></span></p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="76" valign="top" style="width:76.3pt;border:solid windowtext .5pt; border-top:none;mso-border-top-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;padding:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial">Culture<o:p></o:p></span></p> </td> <td width="367" valign="top" style="width:366.5pt;border-top:none;border-left: none;border-bottom:solid windowtext .5pt;border-right:solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;mso-border-left-alt:solid windowtext .5pt; padding:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial">Nemeth (1997) suggests that, for innovation to flourish, it requires a culture that is opposed to the one that is dominant in the organization.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>MIT had quite distinct symbols, processes and values.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The symbols adopted MIT gave the impression of being set apart from the council. For example, its branding and business cards omitted mention of the council name. At trade fairs its stand would have adornments (e.g. banners, branded carrier bags, free gifts) that were on par with those of private sector suppliers. The business consultant procured services and products using a corporate credit card, thus avoiding the delays and some of the checks inherent in the normal council purchasing process. <o:p></o:p></span></p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="76" valign="top" style="width:76.3pt;border:solid windowtext .5pt; border-top:none;mso-border-top-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;padding:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial">Management of technology<o:p></o:p></span></p> </td> <td width="367" valign="top" style="width:366.5pt;border-top:none;border-left: none;border-bottom:solid windowtext .5pt;border-right:solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;mso-border-left-alt:solid windowtext .5pt; padding:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial">MIT was established to deal with disruptive technology, to experiment with technologies for which the business case was not immediately evident. Its major projects, the digital pen and a wireless community initiative, were both started without an initial business case.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>However, as pointed out repeatedly by two of the interviewees, its Head did not always adequately deal with the people issues associated with disruptive innovation projects.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial"><b>Table 5: Innovation capability 2: dealing with disruptive innovation<o:p></o:p></b></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial">This public sector organizational innovation had a life span of four years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Three distinct phases of development are discernable:<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial"><i>Phase I – Innovation incubator</i></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial"> (2005/2007)<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>In the first two years of its existence, MIT employed six staff.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>During this time it developed several products in conjunction with private sector partners.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>It gained £350,000 of seed-corn funding from the government and became the sole distributor of the digital pen in the UK public sector.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Metro’s own Social Services department purchased digital pen equipment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>In addition, MIT sold thousands of digital pens to sixty other local and central government clients.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>According to the then Head of MIT, it captured approximately 90% of the market for digital pens in the public sector, pitching for, and winning, business against some large established public sector providers. This was a period of extensive external networking and relationship building.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>For example in the local government sector, MIT established relationships with 140 councils.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>It gained peer recognition for its work by winning six major public sector innovation awards in its first year of operation.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial"><i>Phase II – Innovation consultancy</i></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial"> (2007/2008)<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>In September 2007 the focus of MIT was realigned with internal council priorities.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>One of the interviewees offered a different perspective, describing this phase as ‘the death by a thousand cuts”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>MIT ceased to support external clients (60% of the service) and downsized to two staff, the Head of MIT and the Business Consultant.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>During phase I of its life, MIT had ‘owned’ its innovations and ‘profited’ from licencing the use of products to all customers (even those within Metro Council).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>In phase II, the client service department became the owner of the technology, with MIT acting as a consultant to identify opportunities and help to realize the achievement of the benefits desired by the relevant department.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial"><i>Phase III – End life: MIT abolished</i></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial"> (2008/09)<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>The team was abolished in 2008/09 and returned to the ICT department as part of a wider reorganization of ICT services.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Its remaining activities and contracts were gradually terminated, or assimilated into the ICT department, over a period of six months with final abolishment in April 2009.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial"><b>5. Bridging the gap between the competing innovation capabilities</b></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial">The innovation capability framework is a useful analytical tool for considering the skills and competencies needed to undertake innovation in organizations.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>This paper has extended the initial concept, outlined by Lawson and Samson (2001), to incorporate the distinct capabilities required for sustaining and disruptive innovation. However, setting up two separate innovation units, with differing cultures is likely to cause tension and conflict within the organization.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Organizational actors will seek to use power and politics to influence decision-making at a senior level in order to gain a larger share of the scarce resources available (Pfeffer, 1992).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial">Previous organizational research has highlighted several roles that aid the introduction of technological innovation. In situations in which contradictory cultures are present, there is a need to bridge the gap between the cultures (Ward and Peppard, 1996; Peppard, 2001). When high-level resource allocation decisions are being made, it helps to have a senior project sponsor to argue the business case for the allocation of resources to the project (Edwards, 1998).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>An implicit assumption in the literature is that this is needed to allocate the scarce resources to innovations meeting the requirements of the current client base. If the innovation is of a disruptive nature, current major clients, and senior in-house staff skilled at fulfilling the needs of this group of clients, may not necessarily understand the business rationale for undertaking the project.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>A project sponsor who can make a persuasive argument for this new type of venture becomes more significant in this situation. Once the implementation of the innovation has been given the go-ahead, a project champion can help to steer progress through the organizational barriers and blockages that sometimes impede innovation (Beath, 1998). The ontological perspective of many of these studies is that there should be alignment between the technologists’ innovation activity and the business objectives and strategy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>In this article, we adopt a different perspective.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>This is one of co-existence, within the organization, of the distinct innovation capabilities required for sustaining and disruptive innovation, based on an accommodation reached between the business and the competing organizational units<a style="mso-footnote-id:ftn1" href="#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character:footnote">[1]</span></span></a>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>This accommodation is sustained by the introduction of a bridging role.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial">It is suggested that the bridging role played a significant role during the innovation incubator phase of MIT.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>During this two-year period, the Head of ICT (interviewee 1), who took on this role, reported that she “sheltered [MIT] from the naysayers”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial"><i>Influencing key staff<o:p></o:p></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial">A key bridging capability is winning over key influential staff (Peppard, 2001).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The interviewees all repeatedly mentioned the Director of Resources as a key stakeholder in the Council’s innovation activities. There was the potential for disruptive innovation to give him problems with elected members.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The bridging role holder kept him informed and satisfied.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Several of the interviewees reported that the Director was nervous about disruptive innovation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>This individual was more comfortable with the characteristics of sustaining innovation (e.g. familiar business case, limited risk, responding to the needs of in-house clients).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial"><i>Dealing with organizational politics<o:p></o:p></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial">A second capability is being able to deal with organizational politics and stakeholder management.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>According to Pfeffer (2002), this includes recognizing the varying interests of other parties involved in the innovation and aligning with powerful stakeholders to maintain the balance of power if conflict arises.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>During the case study discussions, Interviewee 1 frequently mentioned the need for disruptive innovators to be aware of ‘people’s legacies’.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Interviewee 4 further clarified this point, emphasizing the importance of the innovator understanding other people’s ‘value propositions’, recognizing stakeholders operational situation and the opportunities and threats presented to them by the innovation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The social context in which the artifact is diffused is a significant component of the innovation (Griffin, 2009).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Interviewee 1 was skilled at identifying such ‘legacy’ issues and recognizing the additional problems that a new technology might bring to the participating sections of the Council.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Innovation is rarely merely a closed, in-house activity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Most new developments feature a more open, extended approach encompassing an innovation network (Cheesbrough, 2003). In the local government sector, an innovation network might include other councils (Wazniak, 2010), private sector companies (Flood, 2010) or voluntary organizations (Web Reporter, 2010). In these circumstances, this particular capability takes on an additional significance.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial"><i>Managing the relationship between the innovation units<o:p></o:p></i></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial">A third capability identified from this study is to maintain the relationship with the sustaining innovation capability within the organization.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The significance of this is clear from the case study.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The following quotes from the interviewees pinpoint some of the relationship challenges present in this context. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial">“[MIT] got all the luxury stuff and we are left to do the day to day druggery”; [it] was seen by many within the Council that [the Head of MIT] can go off and just do what he wants.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>What is [he] spending loads of money on going all over the country?” (interviewee 4).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>“Within IT there were plenty of people looking at sabotaging it anyway” (Interviewee 1).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>“We were the golden boys”; “if I walked down the corridor in [the town hall], … people would pop out telling me what I couldn’t do.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Nobody was telling me what I could do.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Others said there was innovation elsewhere.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I said show me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>I looked up the corridors and could only see tumbleweed bouncing down.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>They just resented that I started to own innovation.” (Interviewee 2).<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial">Interviewee 1 undertook the bridging role during her tenure as line manager for MIT.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>In Autumn 2007, the bridging role disappeared when she was effectively absent for a period of three months.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>She outlined what happened next as a result of the removal of this accommodation between the competing innovation capabilities:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>“People who were waiting saw the opportunity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The saboteurs moved in whilst I wasn’t there.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>While my back was turned for three months, they neatly stitched it up. The saboteurs had been waiting for the moment all along.”<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial">The bridging role is the second proposed extension to the innovation capability model.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The empirical research undertaken here identifies a new duality: the need to manage the tension between the parties undertaking sustaining and disruptive innovation, when they co-exist within the same organization.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Tensions in the innovating organization have been previously identified, but have concentrated on the relationship between the managers of innovation activities and mainstream operations<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>(Storey, 2000).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>In this research, we have analysed the innovation capabilities associated with sustaining innovation (Table 4) and disruptive innovation (Table 5), to discover three elements of tension and conflict between the managers of these two types of innovation in the case study council.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>These tensions are: culture, peer esteem and access to resources (see Table 6).<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <table border="1" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" style="border-collapse:collapse; border:none;mso-border-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt"> <tbody><tr> <td width="98" valign="top" style="width:97.55pt;border:solid windowtext .5pt; padding:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial"><b>Element<o:p></o:p></b></span></p> </td> <td width="333" valign="top" style="width:333.1pt;border:solid windowtext .5pt; border-left:none;mso-border-left-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;padding:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial"><b>Evidence from the case study<o:p></o:p></b></span></p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="98" valign="top" style="width:97.55pt;border:solid windowtext .5pt; border-top:none;mso-border-top-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;padding:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial">Culture<o:p></o:p></span></p> </td> <td width="333" valign="top" style="width:333.1pt;border-top:none;border-left: none;border-bottom:solid windowtext .5pt;border-right:solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;mso-border-left-alt:solid windowtext .5pt; padding:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial"><i>Symbols </i></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Tension was<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>caused by MIT’s separate brand and business card, which were not easily identifiable as being part of the Council (Interviewee 3).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The UK Cabinet Office gave permission for a distinct MIT website address, but this was blocked by the Council (Interviewee 2).<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial"><i>Processes<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></i></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial">Tensions arose from MIT’s organic organization which contrasted with the mechanistic organization of the Council.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>MIT appeared to set its own agenda, allowing creativity to flow; other departments were more constrained as they discharged responsibilities.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>MIT had streamlined procurement processes and was not so constrained by council committee processes.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial"><i>Values </i></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>There was a clash of values.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The Council adopted a risk-adverse approach, based on its accountability for spending public finances.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>In contrast, MIT adopted an entrepreneurial stance, accepting a greater degree of risk in its ventures. The Head of MIT exhibited commercial acumen and a ‘private sector’ mentality which challenged other senior staff who possessed traditional public sector values.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial"><o:p></o:p></span></p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="98" valign="top" style="width:97.55pt;border:solid windowtext .5pt; border-top:none;mso-border-top-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;padding:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial">Peer esteem<o:p></o:p></span></p> </td> <td width="333" valign="top" style="width:333.1pt;border-top:none;border-left: none;border-bottom:solid windowtext .5pt;border-right:solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;mso-border-left-alt:solid windowtext .5pt; padding:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial">MIT was regarded as an innovator throughout the public sector.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>For instance, it had a relationship with 140 councils at its peak (Interviewee 3).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>It gained 90% of the UK public sector market for digital pens (Interviewee 2). Its innovation capability and record were recognized by the Cabinet Office (Interviewee 2) and the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (Interviewee 3). In one year, it won six major awards, including the SOCITM Project Excellence Award. This level of esteem was unmatched in the ICT section responsible for sustaining innovation.<o:p></o:p></span></p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="98" valign="top" style="width:97.55pt;border:solid windowtext .5pt; border-top:none;mso-border-top-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;padding:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial">Access to resources<o:p></o:p></span></p> </td> <td width="333" valign="top" style="width:333.1pt;border-top:none;border-left: none;border-bottom:solid windowtext .5pt;border-right:solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;mso-border-left-alt:solid windowtext .5pt; padding:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt"> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial">MIT was able to experiment with new technologies before identifying a client (Interviewee 1).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>These ‘golden boys’ (Interviewee 2) were not constrained like the main ICT section, which began projects by eliciting client requirements.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>This led to professional jealousy and the feeling elsewhere that MIT was gaining special treatment (Interviewee 1). The perception in corporate ICT was that MIT staff were wandering the country spending money without being restrained by accountability and committee decision-making (Interviewee 4). <o:p></o:p></span></p> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial"><b>Table 6: Elements of tension between the sustaining and disruptive innovators<o:p></o:p></b></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial"><b> <o:p></o:p></b></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial"><b> <o:p></o:p></b></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial"><b> <o:p></o:p></b></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial"><b>6. Extending the innovation capability model to deal with disruptive innovation<o:p></o:p></b></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial">The technological innovation activities at Metro Council can only be partially analysed by using the innovation capability model.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The innovation capability framework is a useful device for evaluating the innovation characteristics present in an organization.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>However, the model assumes that this innovation is aimed at the existing customer base and is consequently of the sustaining type.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Metro Council undertook both disruptive and sustaining innovation concurrently.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The innovation capability model has been extended during this research to distinguish between these separate activities as they will require distinct innovation capabilities.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>As has been mentioned in section 5, this introduces a new duality, and causes new tensions that, in Metro Council, were held in check by means of a bridging role. Whilst the bridging role was being fulfilled, the council was able to maintain positive development of both streams of innovation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>When the bridging role was removed, the tensions took hold and political activity led to the demise of the disruptive innovation stream.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The characteristics of the bridging role are documented in section 5.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial"><span style="mso-field-code:"SHAPE \\* MERGEFORMAT";mso-field-lock:yes"><!--[if gte vml 1]><v:group id="_x0000_s1046" style="'position:absolute;" coordorigin="1744,196" coordsize="7200,3703"> <o:lock ext="edit" rotation="t" aspectratio="t" position="t"> <v:shape 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!mso]> <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"> <tr> <td><![endif]> <div> <p class="MsoNormal"><span style="'font-size:8.0pt;font-family:Arial;">Knowledge<o:p></o:p></span></p> </div> <![if !mso]></td> </tr> </table> <![endif]></v:textbox> </v:shape><v:shape id="_x0000_s1075" type="#_x0000_t202" style="'position:absolute;" stroked="f"> <v:textbox> <![if !mso]> <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"> <tr> <td><![endif]> <div> <p class="MsoNormal" align="right" style="'text-align:right'"><span style="'font-size:8.0pt;font-family:Arial;mso-ansi-language:EN-GB'">Knowledge<o:p></o:p></span></p> </div> <![if !mso]></td> </tr> </table> <![endif]></v:textbox> </v:shape><w:anchorlock/> </v:group><![endif]--><span style="mso-ignore:vglayout;position:absolute;z-index:20;margin-left:0px;margin-top:0px;width:432px;height:216px"><img width="432" height="216" src="file://localhost/Users/griffi03/Library/Caches/TemporaryItems/msoclip1/01/clip_image003.png" shapes="_x0000_s1046 _x0000_s1047 _x0000_s1048 _x0000_s1049 _x0000_s1050 _x0000_s1051 _x0000_s1052 _x0000_s1053 _x0000_s1054 _x0000_s1055 _x0000_s1056 _x0000_s1057 _x0000_s1058 _x0000_s1059 _x0000_s1060 _x0000_s1061 _x0000_s1062 _x0000_s1063 _x0000_s1064 _x0000_s1065 _x0000_s1066 _x0000_s1067 _x0000_s1068 _x0000_s1069 _x0000_s1070 _x0000_s1071 _x0000_s1072 _x0000_s1073 _x0000_s1074 _x0000_s1075" /></span><!--[if gte vml 1]><v:shape id="_x0000_i1026" type="#_x0000_t75" style="'width:6in;height:3in'"> <v:imagedata croptop="-65520f" cropbottom="65520f"> <o:lock ext="edit" rotation="t" position="t"> </v:shape><![endif]--><img width="432" height="216" src="file://localhost/Users/griffi03/Library/Caches/TemporaryItems/msoclip1/01/clip_image004.png" shapes="_x0000_i1026" /></span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:8.0pt;font-family:Arial"><b>Figure 2: The extended innovation capability model (adapted from Lawson and Samson, 2001)<o:p></o:p></b></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><!--[if gte vml 1]><v:shape id="_x0000_s1076" type="#_x0000_t202" style="'position:absolute;left:0;text-align:left;" strokecolor="white"> <v:textbox style="'mso-next-textbox:#_x0000_s1076'/"> </v:shape><![endif]--><span style="mso-ignore:vglayout"> </span></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" align="left"> <tbody><tr> <td width="480" height="11"></td> </tr> <tr> <td></td> <td width="77" height="76" align="left" valign="top" bgcolor="white" style="border: .75pt solid white;vertical-align:top;background:white"><span style="position:absolute;z-index:3"> <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"> <tbody><tr> <td> <div shape="_x0000_s1076" style="padding:3.6pt 7.2pt 3.6pt 7.2pt" class="shape"> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size:10.0pt"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> </div> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> </span> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> <span style="font-family:Arial"><span lang="EN-US"> <o:p></o:p></span></span><p></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial"><b> <o:p></o:p></b></span></p> <br /> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial"><b>7. Conclusion<o:p></o:p></b></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial">This research was initiated as a result of serendipity: being involved in other project work with the case study organization at the time the MIT innovation was being established.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>However, the direction taken in the research was<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>informed by a review of the literature.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>It has previously been identified that there is a paucity of empirical research into public sector innovation (Bessant, 2005) and the organizing for innovation literature is a comparatively new and under-researched area that is still emerging (Pettigrew and Fenton, 2000).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The study, examining an approach to organizing for innovation in a local authority, aimed to contribute to filling both of these gaps in innovation knowledge.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial">Many local authorities in the UK have become skilled at the sustaining type of innovation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Under the recent New Labour Government, they responded to the challenges of e-Government (Cabinet Office, 2005) and the ‘Gershon’ efficiency drive (Gershon, 2004) by developing technological innovations to serve their current service users (or, to be more precise, the top-end users, the ones most capable and ready to engage with the technology).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>However, the current political and economic climate presents new, disruptive challenges.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The UK Coalition Government has prioritized the reduction of the structural deficit element of the sovereign debt by contracting the size of the public sector.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The budget for local authorities is to reduce by 28% over a period of four years (LGA, 2010).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>To maintain services, councils will need to alter their business models.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>There is also<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>the potential for councils to deliver services to new markets, in collaboration with other public sector bodies, the private sector and voluntary organizations.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>As illustrated in the case study presented here, the innovation capabilities required for such disruptive innovation are quite distinct from those required for sustaining innovation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Furthermore, it is likely that tensions will arise as a result of a local authority being concurrently involved in sustaining and disruptive innovation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial">The innovation capability model, developed out of empirical research in the private sector, was applied and extended here in the context of an organization undertaking both sustaining and disruptive innovation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Two extensions were proposed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Firstly, using the innovation capability framework, distinct characteristics were identified for sustaining and disruptive innovation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Secondly, to accommodate the duality caused by separate (and, at times, opposing) innovation streams, a bridging role was proposed. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial">There are several imitations to this research that should be highlighted to the reader. It is a small-scale study.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The key actors involved were identified using the snowball sampling technique.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>However, it would have been beneficial to interview other significant staff (e.g. the Director of the Resources Directorate).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The project had a short life of four years and, although this was a ‘complete’ life of setup, mid-life and disbandment, an organizational setting in which sustaining and disruptive innovation are undertaken over a longer timescale might overcome the tensions between the two in quite a different manner.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>It is for future research, in other public or private sector contexts, to further explore the application of the extended innovation capability model to overcome these limitations.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial"><b>References<o:p></o:p></b></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:Arial;mso-ansi-language:EN-GB">Albury, D (2005) Fostering innovation in public services, <i>Public Money & Management</i></span><span style="font-family:Arial;mso-ansi-language:EN-GB">, Jan 2005, pp 51-56<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:Arial;mso-ansi-language:EN-GB"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:Arial;mso-ansi-language:EN-GB">Beath CM (1998) The Project Champion in MJ Earl Information Management: the Organizational Dimension, Oxford: Oxford University Press<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial">Bessant J (2005) Enabling continuous and discontinuous innovation: learning from the private sector, Public Money and Management, January 2005<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial">Bessant J and Tidd J (2007) Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Chichester: Wiley<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial">Burns T and Stalker G (1961) The Management of Innovation, London: Tavistock Publications<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p 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New York: The Free Press<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial">Pfeffer J (1992) Managing with Power: Politics and Influences in Organizations, California Management Review, 34 (2), 29-50<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial">Storey J (2000) The Management of Innovation Problem, International Journal of Innovation Management, 4 (3), pp. 347-369<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial">Van Duivenboden H and Thaens m (2008) ICT-driven innovation and the culture of public administration: A contradiction in terms? Information Polity 13 213-232<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial">Von Stamm B (2008) Managing Innovation, Design and Creativity, 2<sup>nd</sup> Edn., Chichester: Wiley<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial">Ward J and Peppard J (1996) Reconciling the IT/business relationship: a troubled marriage in need of guidance, the Journal of Strategic Information Systems, 5, 37-65<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial">Wazniak P (2010) Cost-saving super council planned, Politics.co.uk, <a href="http://www.politics.co.uk/news/communities-and-local-government/cost-saving-super-council-planned-$21385061.htm">http://www.politics.co.uk/news/communities-and-local-government/cost-saving-super-council-planned-$21385061.htm</a>, accessed [25/10/2010]<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span style="font-family:Arial;mso-ansi-language:EN-GB">Web Reporter (2010) Council and voluntary groups work for ‘Big Society’ in Essex, Harlow Star, 28/09/2010, <a href="http://www.harlowstar.co.uk/News/Council-and-voluntary-groups-work-for-Big-Society-in-Essex.htm">http://www.harlowstar.co.uk/News/Council-and-voluntary-groups-work-for-Big-Society-in-Essex.htm</a>, accessed [25/10/2010]<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Arial"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <div style="mso-element:footnote-list"><br /> <hr align="left" size="1" width="33%"> <div style="mso-element:footnote" id="ftn1"> <p class="MsoFootnoteText"><a style="mso-footnote-id:ftn1" href="#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="mso-special-character:footnote">[1]</span></span></span></a><span lang="EN-US"> The concept of ‘accommodation’ is similar to that employed by Checkland (1981) in his Soft Systems Methodology (SSM) studies.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>In trying to derive a solution to a complex, messy business problem, he suggests that agreement is unlikely between the various parties over the required action.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>SSM explores various perspectives in order to achieve accommodation between the parties over the resulting action. </span></p> </div> </div> <!--EndFragment-->daveghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03419824593002430613noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7408770107544742525.post-49127479543525024852010-07-04T10:59:00.000-07:002010-07-04T11:05:53.897-07:00MODULE COMMUNICATION WITH STUDENTS: THE VIEWS OF COMPUTING FIRST YEAR STUDENTS<!--StartFragment--> <p class="MsoNormal"><b><br /></b></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><b> <o:p></o:p></b></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><b>Introduction<o:p></o:p></b></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">This report presents the findings of the Progression Project survey of first year students’ views on alternative channels for module-level communication.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">It has been produced in partial fulfillment of one of the author’s six CPR objectives for the current year.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><b>Context<o:p></o:p></b></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">The first year progression project is a module that contains limited structured class contact with students.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>As a result, there are fewer opportunities than usual to use the physical space to reinforce the objectives of the module or to ensure that students stay on track. The module leader experimented with several virtual communication channels to overcome this potential weakness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">A Facebook group was established for Computing 09/10 students at the start of the academic year.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>83 students joined this group. All announcements made by the module leader were placed on xstream and sent to this group. Students initiated some of the one-to-one communication with the module leader using this group.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Unexpectedly, one of the group postings made by a student provided the basis for two refreshed lectures, one on the first year Systems Modelling and the other on the final year Innovation and Enterprise. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">A short series of Youtube videos were produced to introduce the module.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The first of these was made available on Easter Sunday, allowing the module to start several weeks before its opening physical session.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>(Video one – 197 views; video two – 198 views).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>In addition two interviews were filmed with returning placement students and made available to the group in an attempt to encourage first year students to consider the benefits of placements.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>(Video one – 208 views; video two – 316 views).</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">Finally, two audio files were recorded at significant stages in the project to ensure students were briefed on the progress expected at that point in the module.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><b>Findings<o:p></o:p></b></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><b><i>How often do they access the communication channels preferred by the university?<o:p></o:p></i></b></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">62% of the sample look at xstream most days, with 20% accessing it every day.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">51% of the sample access their university account most days, with a further 20% looking at their university account on a weekly basis. </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">By comparison, 91% of the sample use Facebook most days.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><b><i>Contacting students<o:p></o:p></i></b></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">Students were asked what they felt was the quickest way to contact them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Eighteen felt the university email was the quickest method; 18 chose Facebook; 14 chose their personal email and 11 were of the opinion that their mobile phone was the quickest means for contacting them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>(Note that many students chose two or more of the options).</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">Students were also asked what was their preferred means of contact.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Once again, some students chose several options.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>The preferences were as follows: university email (21); Facebook (12); personal email (14) and mobile phone (7).</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><b><i>Engagement with the additional communication channels set up for the Progression Project<o:p></o:p></i></b></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">76% of the sample joined the Facebook group set up for first year students.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Of those who tried this method of communicating, only one did not feel that this was a good idea.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>In addition, half of those who did not join the group also felt it was worthwhile.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>65% of the sample would interested in other modules contacting them using facebook groups, with 1% disagreeing with this suggestion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Of those who took part in the group, there was only one student who disagreed with the proposal that other modules should use facebook groups as a way of communicating with students.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><b><i>Engagement with the Youtube videos and audio messages<o:p></o:p></i></b></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">40% of the sample watched all of the videos and a further 38% watched at least one of them.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>These were released via the Facebook group and xstream.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>To listen to the audio files, the students needed to log into xstream first.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>A similar percentage listened to both of the audio messages (42%) but fewer listened to at least one (27%).<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>46% of the sample agreed that the audio files helped keep them on track with module and 51% expressed no opinion about this.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Of those who listened to both of the audio files, all but two of them agreed that the files had been worthwhile.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The twelve students who listened to one audio file were less enthusiastic.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Five of these agreed that the files had been beneficial, six had no opinion and one disagreed with the suggestion that the files had been useful.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">(It was also planned to evaluate the usefulness of the videos to students. This was omitted from the research instrument due to researcher error).</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><b><i>Should social networking sites be used for academic purposes?<o:p></o:p></i></b></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">The views of the sample were divided on this issue, with similar numbers expressing positive and negative views.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>38% of the sample felt that academic work should only be posted to xstream.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>37% felt that social networking sites should be used for academic engagement.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The remaining 25% expressed no opinion on this matter.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Those who took part in the Facebook experiment had a more positive view, with 50% more of them being in favour of the use of social networking sites by module teams.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The students who had watched one or more Youtube video were more likely to have a positive opinion of the use of social networking sites, with a 36% increase in positive views when compared to the total sample.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">Conclusions </span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">Firstly, this survey has provided the opportunity to assess whether the university email account remains the ‘best’ way to contact students.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>In recent years, various alternatives have been tried out (e.g. texting to mobile phones, phoning students on mobiles, visiting students’ term-time addresses).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>This study illustrates that the multiple channels that are available.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>Although the university email remains the single most popular choice, the majority of students prefer other methods.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>However, it is interesting that contact by mobile phone is the least preferred of the four options presented.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>It would also appear that students are divided in their views about which channel is the quickest way to make contact.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">Secondly, this study supports tutors’ anecdotal evidence regarding<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>students’ interest in Facebook.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>All of this sample are Facebook users, with 91% of them using the site every day for social interaction.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>This contrasts with the situation two years ago when 67% were regular users (Griffin, 2009). Almost all of the students who took part in the trial of Facebook within the module felt this was a good idea.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Furthermore 65% of the sample, including those who did not participate on this occasion, would like other modules to adopt this means of communication.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>This does not necessarily mean they would prefer it to replace xstream for all academic purposes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">Thirdly, there is some evidence that using Youtube videos and audio messages helped students to maintain progress on the module.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The Progression Project is the first module they experience in which the students manage their own engagement and decide which tasks they carry out.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Approximately, 70% of the sample watched some of the videos and listened to at least one audio message.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Further investigation is required to explore how effective this particular communication is from both the students’ and tutors’ perspectives.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">Finally, the limitations of this study need to be recognized.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>It is a small-scale sample with a limited set of issues considered. A larger study, perhaps using a mixture of methods, might provide greater insight.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>This study merely considers the views of one party in module communication:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>the student.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>It ignores the experience of the tutors involved.<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>Furthermore, this was action research.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>The researcher was not an independent observer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>This may have influenced some of the responses made by students.</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">Recommendations</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <ol style="margin-top:0cm" start="1" type="1"> <li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1;tab-stops:list 36.0pt"><span lang="EN-US">This was an initial study. The results are interesting but highlight areas in which a deeper investigation is required. It is recommended that the study is repeated next year on the Progression Project.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>If funding and time permits, it could be expanded to include some qualitative research in the form of focus groups or interviews with students.</span></li> </ol> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <ol style="margin-top:0cm" start="2" type="1"> <li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1;tab-stops:list 36.0pt"><span lang="EN-US">The author would be particularly interested to collaborate with one of the Computing teacher fellows to develop this study into a REF output for the Subject Group next year.</span></li> </ol> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <ol style="margin-top:0cm" start="3" type="1"> <li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1;tab-stops:list 36.0pt"><span lang="EN-US">The Subject Group might wish to consider whether some of these social networking tools might be used to provide additional support and guidance in other modules with limited physical delivery such as Work-Based Learning and Supervised Work Experience.</span></li> </ol> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">David Griffin</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US">30 June 2010</span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"><b>Reference<o:p></o:p></b></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US" style="letter-spacing:-.15pt">Griffin D (2009) <i>University 2.0: </i></span><span lang="EN-AU" style="mso-ansi-language:EN-AU;color:black;"><i>Embracing Social Networking to Better Engage the Facebook-generation in University Life</i></span><span lang="EN-US" style="letter-spacing:-.15pt"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>in S Murugesan, The<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></span><span lang="EN-AU" style="mso-ansi-language:EN-AU;color:black;">Handbook of Research on Web 2.0, 3.0 and X.0., IGI Global </span><span lang="EN-US" style="letter-spacing:-.15pt;color:black;"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-US"> <o:p></o:p></span></p> <!--EndFragment-->daveghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03419824593002430613noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7408770107544742525.post-11514784011305423762010-03-30T02:59:00.000-07:002010-04-02T01:22:10.668-07:00Government 3.0 coming to a browser near you?Last week, the Prime Minister in his speech, <a href="http://www.number10.gov.uk/Page22897">Building Britain's Digital Future</a>, announced the government's plan to help in making the semantic web (commonly called Web 3.0) a reality for citizens in the UK. There are three strands to this plan:<div><br /></div><div>1. The roll out a 'superfast' broadband network network to all of the UK (funded in part by the 50p levy on landlines)</div><div>2. The creation a new <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/8580424.stm">Institute of Web Science</a>, hosted by Oxford and Southampton universities, to lead on research into the next generation web.</div><div>3. Making government's non-personal data available to us to use without restriction.</div><div><br /></div><div>In his speech, the PM responded to the invitation issued by Sir Tim Berners- Lee in February 2009 at the TED conference for help in making the semantic web a reality. Berners-Lee asked TED delegates to give him their "raw data now" to enable this data to be linked and shared openly across the web</div><br /><object width="446" height="326"><param name="movie" value="http://video.ted.com/assets/player/swf/EmbedPlayer.swf"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="wmode" value="transparent"><param name="bgColor" value="#ffffff"> <param name="flashvars" value="vu=http://video.ted.com/talks/dynamic/TimBerners-Lee_2009-medium.flv&su=http://images.ted.com/images/ted/tedindex/embed-posters/TimBerners-Lee-2009.embed_thumbnail.jpg&vw=432&vh=240&ap=0&ti=484&introDuration=16500&adDuration=4000&postAdDuration=2000&adKeys=talk=tim_berners_lee_on_the_next_web;year=2009;theme=what_s_next_in_tech;event=TED2009;&preAdTag=tconf.ted/embed;tile=1;sz=512x288;"><embed src="http://video.ted.com/assets/player/swf/EmbedPlayer.swf" pluginspace="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" bgcolor="#ffffff" width="446" height="326" allowfullscreen="true" flashvars="vu=http://video.ted.com/talks/dynamic/TimBerners-Lee_2009-medium.flv&su=http://images.ted.com/images/ted/tedindex/embed-posters/TimBerners-Lee-2009.embed_thumbnail.jpg&vw=432&vh=240&ap=0&ti=484&introDuration=16500&adDuration=4000&postAdDuration=2000&adKeys=talk=tim_berners_lee_on_the_next_web;year=2009;theme=what_s_next_in_tech;event=TED2009;"></embed></object><br /><br /><div>How is Gordon Brown going to provide raw data now? His answer in the speech was this:<div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 17px; font-family:Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:13px;">"I can confirm that from 1st April, we will be making a substantial package of information held by ordnance survey freely available to the public, without restrictions on re-use. And I can also tell you today that in the autumn the Government will publish online an inventory of all non-personal datasets held by departments and arms-length bodies - a “domesday book” for the 21st century. he new domesday book will for the first time allow the public to access in one place information on each set of data including its size, source, format, content, timeliness, cost and quality. And there will be an expectation that departments will release each of these datasets, or account publicly for why they are not doing so."<span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: normal; font-family:Georgia, serif;font-size:16px;"> </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 17px; font-family:Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:13px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: normal; font-family:Georgia, serif;font-size:16px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 17px; font-family:Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: normal; font-family:Georgia, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Wow! We, you and me, will have open access to government data to use as we will on websites and in apps. The government's first tentative steps towards this can be seen on the </span><a href="https://www.data.gov.uk/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">data.gov</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> website. This site features several apps that have been already developed by IT developers. My current favourite is the Facebook-based </span><a href="http://apps.facebook.com/ukcrimestatsquiz/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Crime Statistics quiz</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> (partly because as a young systems analyst my first project was helping to develop the South Yorkshire Police Crime Statistics system).</span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 17px; font-family:Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: normal; font-family:Georgia, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 17px; font-family:Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: normal; font-family:Georgia, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">It's easy to get carried away thinking about the move from Web 1.0 through Web 2.0 and now to the web of linked data, or Web 3.0, from a technical perspective. Any organisational, governmental or social change that is driven by technological advance is open to the criticism of technological determinism.</span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 17px; font-family:Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: normal; font-family:Georgia, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Nicholas Carr makes <a href="http://www.roughtype.com/archives/2006/08/the_web_is_unfl.php">t</a></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><a href="http://www.roughtype.com/archives/2006/08/the_web_is_unfl.php">he case</a></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> for a more holistic approach to change. It is too simplistic to suggest that a 'good' new technology will necessarily lead to an improved organisation, government or society:</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 23px; font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif;font-size:14px;">"the impact of any new technology, even an extremely powerful one like the Internet, is filtered through existing geopolitical, economic, social, and cultural structures and norms. "</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 23px; font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif;font-size:14px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 23px; font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">The blogger, the Public Strategist, considering the impact of Web 3.0 on governments, </span><a href="http://publicstrategist.com/2010/03/suddenly-we-appear-to-be-even-further-behind-the-times/http://publicstrategist.com/2010/03/suddenly-we-appear-to-be-even-further-behind-the-times/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">echoes this sentiment:</span></a></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 23px; font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif;font-size:14px;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 23px; font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif;font-size:14px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px; color: rgb(85, 85, 85); font-family:'Lucida Grande', sans-serif;">"Governments are not websites or software releases. They change in <a href="http://publicstrategist.com/2007/12/why-is-change-slow/" style="color: rgb(34, 102, 170); text-decoration: none; ">slow and sometimes mysterious</a> ways."</span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif;font-size:130%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 23px;font-size:14px;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 23px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">That may be the case. If the PM's digital domesday book is going to take off, it will require strong leadership and cultural change to remove the potential barriers that might prevent the data sets being shared inside and outside of government 'silos'. The change might not happen at the speed that technologists might wish, there may be blockages and laggardly behaviour by some politicians and government officers, but for those of us chomping at the bit to 'hack' government data sets and present them in new ways, it will still be fun on the way!</span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 17px; font-family:Arial, Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:13px;"></span></div></div>daveghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03419824593002430613noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7408770107544742525.post-83112744240348207362010-03-02T13:31:00.001-08:002010-03-02T13:31:36.731-08:00Managing projects<embed src="http://c.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f8/979266267" bgcolor="#FFFFFF" flashVars="videoId=24651788001&playerId=979266267&viewerSecureGatewayURL=https://console.brightcove.com/services/amfgateway&servicesURL=http://services.brightcove.com/services&cdnURL=http://admin.brightcove.com&domain=embed&autoStart=false&" base="http://admin.brightcove.com" name="flashObj" width="300" height="225" seamlesstabbing="false" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" swLiveConnect="true" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/shockwave/download/index.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash"></embed><p></p>daveghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03419824593002430613noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7408770107544742525.post-75321365875952650332010-01-15T07:39:00.000-08:002010-01-15T11:22:30.623-08:00Everybody gonna stamp their feet, everybody's gonna feel the beat!<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjodjkxxwSkzjuTOnsLL4-dCs2iUA4UkPt1q2yEci33uHko4IyVXSyoNq5P_JFxAJqzI185iKC7rAmC4f2who-WyZ3D8BNcopWyAVRnztCVjZdCIv4LVogmerSxPMCDgbooPaTLx5XmPr0/s1600-h/3243708140_cc4046ec6a_m.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 180px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjodjkxxwSkzjuTOnsLL4-dCs2iUA4UkPt1q2yEci33uHko4IyVXSyoNq5P_JFxAJqzI185iKC7rAmC4f2who-WyZ3D8BNcopWyAVRnztCVjZdCIv4LVogmerSxPMCDgbooPaTLx5XmPr0/s320/3243708140_cc4046ec6a_m.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5427001089415252034" /></a><br /><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">A few days ago, the Times published an </span><a href="http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article6983892.ece"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">obituary</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> for <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Donald_Booth">Andrew Booth</a>, an English scientist who played a pioneering role in the development of the computer. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Booth invented the magnetic storage device, using the magnetic properties of a nickel coated drum to store data. He first demonstrated the capabilities of a rotating magnetic drum in May 1948. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">The drum in the first computer he developed had the following characteristics: </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Times, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Times, serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">"The main memory was a rotating magnetic drum with 32 tracks. Each track held 32 words of 32 bits each. Ten bits were enough to address any word in the memory. The machine was serial. Each revolution of the drum took 32 `major' cycles, and inside each major cycle there were 32 minor cycles or bit pulses. A simple data operation such as a 32-bit addition took 32 minor cycles. However, the number of cycles actually used for any operation was controlled by the counter field, which specified a six-bit starting value. The operation would be halted as soon as the counter overflowed. Since the memory did not have random access characteristics there were obvious advantages in being able to place successive instructions in the `best' place on the drum. This implied that each instruction needed to carry the address of its predecessor." (Collin, 1993).</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">The magnetic drum became a key component of early (upto late 1970s) commercial computers. The ICL 1900 series mainframe used by my first employer, South Yorkshire County Council, in the 1970s, featured a magnetic drum supplemented by several exchangible discs (EDS 8 and EDS 20) which, to my recollection, had a capacity of 8 and 20 megabytes. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Booth assembled his </span><a href="http://www.dcs.bbk.ac.uk/about/history/aperc.html"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">first computer</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> at Birkbeck College in 1952. This was a small-scale project, with a team comprising of Booth, his programming assistant (and future wife) plus an engineer. The engineer was his first Masters student, Norman Kitz, who later designed the world's first electronic desktop calculator (Johnson, 2008). </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">In 1957, Booth established the first university department in the UK dedicated to the study of computing. This was originally known as Department of Numerical Automation. Today it is the School of Computer Science and Information Systems.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Finally, he also played a leading role in the establishment of the <a href="http://www.bcs.org/">British Computer Society</a>. In 1956/7, he chaired the committee to set up a national computer society (Johnson, 2008).</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Notes:</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Collin, A (1993) Andrew Booth's Computers at Birbeck College, Computer Ressurection Issue 5, Computer Conservation Society http://www.cs.manchester.ac.uk/CCS/res/res05.htm#e</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Johnson R (2008) Birkbeck School of Computer Science and Information Systems: A Short History http://www.dcs.bbk.ac.uk/50years/50yearsofcomputing.pdf </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">The title of this blog is a quote from Paul McCartney's song Dance Tonight which appeared first on his 2007 album Memory Almost Full.</span></div>daveghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03419824593002430613noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7408770107544742525.post-71403707219559736562009-10-15T10:57:00.000-07:002009-10-19T12:12:20.244-07:00Lord Berners-Lee of the World Wide Web?<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLnv1RzuqE1FaymF2WdS3qaZS-Jb55lmE2Xk2LIXefAatAL7pIKuK8PetlsaEV4zoQbFMdT3Nrr3BJS1UDZxPHL1Qtk8RYiewBKdgeBEadt32v2KU-_7uMmNW8FIKOkfCRBpEj2vlq0Do/s1600-h/881424158_b37ba25bbd.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 250px; height: 164px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLnv1RzuqE1FaymF2WdS3qaZS-Jb55lmE2Xk2LIXefAatAL7pIKuK8PetlsaEV4zoQbFMdT3Nrr3BJS1UDZxPHL1Qtk8RYiewBKdgeBEadt32v2KU-_7uMmNW8FIKOkfCRBpEj2vlq0Do/s320/881424158_b37ba25bbd.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5392899450809093346" /></a><br />There is a <a href="http://lgiu.wordpress.com/2009/10/15/democratise-the-house-of-lords/">rumour</a> circulating around the Internet that the man who invented the world wide web, <a href="http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/about/news/658">Professo</a>r Sir Tim Berners-Lee, is going to be given a <a href="http://www.debretts.com/people/essential-guide-to-the-peerage/the-ranks-of-the-peerage/life-peer.aspx">life peerage </a>if the Conservatives win the next General Election (1). <div><br /></div><div>It was only yesterday that Murad Ahmed, writing in The Times suggested (2):</div><div><br /></div><div>"Many have argued that he would have been awarded the Nobel Prize had his discoveries been spun out of traditional sciences"</div><div><br /></div><div>Which honour would you rate as the higher of the two I wonder - Life Peer or <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobel_Prize">Nobel Lauriete</a>?</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>Notes</div><div><br /></div><div>(1) The Local Democracy Blog http://lgiu.wordpress.com/2009/10/15/democratise-the-house-of-lords/ accessed 15 October 2009</div><div><br /></div><div>(2) M Ahmed (2009) A worldwide waste of time...web creator admits those double slashes were a mistake, The Times, 14 October 2009</div>daveghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03419824593002430613noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7408770107544742525.post-82694963601047876802009-10-13T11:03:00.000-07:002009-10-19T12:57:17.775-07:00The free digital content debate goes on - draft<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Libby Perves, writing in a recent edition of The Times (12 Oct 2009), argues that "the internet generation has grown up believing it can enjoy other people's hard work for nothing." She suggests that this must stop. She points to the 'backlash' that is underway in the music and newspaper industries. This backlash has been documented over recent weeks in The Times newspaper.</span></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">A major move in this direction was the plan announced by the Government to strengthen the measures outlined in the Digital Britain report to reduce illegal file-sharing. Creative industry chief executives backed this plan (The Times 1 Sept 2009), stressing the economic implications (just like Purves): </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">" </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">as our film, television, publishing, </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><a name="ORIGHIT_2"></a></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><a name="HIT_2"></a></span></span><span class="hit" style="color: rgb(204, 0, 51); font-weight: bold; "><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">music,</span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> sports and entertainment retail businesses go digital, their ability to invest in creating high quality content that millions can enjoy is fatally undermined by illegal filesharing. This has a direct impact on current and future employment opportunities for the British creative workforce, the promotion of emerging talent and on innovation in new digital content services."</span></span></div><div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Musicians, such as James Blunt and Lilly Allen sent letters to The Times supporting the proposals:</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Musician James Blunt wrote a letter to the editor of the Times offering support to this viewpoint (The Times, 21st Sept 2009):</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:13px;"><p class="loose" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 14px; margin-bottom: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; display: block; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">"I want to put my hand up in support of Lily Allen (Thunderer, Sept 16). She's asking British musicians to galvanise over a serious crime: the death of a great British industry - our </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><a name="ORIGHIT_2"></a></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><a name="HIT_2"></a></span></span><span class="hit" style="color: rgb(204, 0, 51); font-weight: bold; "><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">music</span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> business.</span></span></p><p class="loose" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 14px; margin-bottom: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; display: block; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">The world over, people are stealing </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><a name="ORIGHIT_3"></a></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"><a name="HIT_3"></a></span></span><span class="hit" style="color: rgb(204, 0, 51); font-weight: bold; "><span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">music</span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;"> in its millions in the form of illegal file-sharing. It's easy to do, and has become accepted by many, but people need to know that it is destroying people's livelihoods and suffocating emerging British artists."</span></span></p><p class="loose" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 14px; margin-bottom: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; display: block; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">Let us examine their argument. File sharing is rampant. As a consequence it is destroying the music scene and stifling innovation. Musician Tom Robinson (The Times 16 October 2009) counters both of these assertions. He feels it is 'derailing the gravy train' of the record companies, but songwriters "operate in a far more favourable environment...."</span></span></p><p class="loose" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 14px; margin-bottom: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-top: 0px; display: block; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:'times new roman', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:medium;">Is there evidence of innovation and creativity in the digital free economy? He thinks so. "You now need little more than a laptop and a good pair of ears to produce high-quality recordings at home...distribution on iTunes [costs] £30 ....Best of all, music and visuals can be 'broadcast' worldwide on Myspace and Youtube at no cost at all. You'll no longer make afortune but you'll certainly earn a living."</span></p></span></div></div>daveghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03419824593002430613noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7408770107544742525.post-14615915303618264722009-08-19T11:53:00.000-07:002009-08-23T02:57:32.595-07:00The best things in life are free<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7xaUZQbmHlGmTJ9SCbGr7aW-4AprvIYbVKDfppXoVJxZt5BY1C5OhCyz8oL9egfRMqqAuygrsshD8FuTbrQ60aU8k2gJ7tT8Iy3gFRLcJU-lpXUbg05cBpPh9iRo8OZl45RbW0BHf2kI/s1600-h/3363367513_c9346d1bf3_m.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 215px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7xaUZQbmHlGmTJ9SCbGr7aW-4AprvIYbVKDfppXoVJxZt5BY1C5OhCyz8oL9egfRMqqAuygrsshD8FuTbrQ60aU8k2gJ7tT8Iy3gFRLcJU-lpXUbg05cBpPh9iRo8OZl45RbW0BHf2kI/s320/3363367513_c9346d1bf3_m.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5371778577903119906" /></a><br />In <i>Free: the Future of a Radical Price</i> (2009), Chris Anderson predicts that games will soon be 'free'.<div><br /></div><div>He writes (p 145):<div><br /></div><div>"Games are one of the last digital products that are mostly sold [in stores] and that model is nearing its end. Just as music and software is becoming primarily an online market, so will games. And once you move from shipping atoms (plastic boxes and discs) to transmitting bits, free becomes inevitable. Over the next decade, this $10 billion industry will shift from primarily a traditional packaged goods business to an online business built on entry prices of zero."</div><div><br /></div><div>The first step towards this zero entry price was reported yesterday in The Times[1]. The latest version of the football game, Championship Manager, has been made available for a month online for as little as 1p. This is an adaptation of the innovation introduced by Radiohead last year, when they invited their fans to pay what they wanted to download their "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_Rainbows">In Rainbows</a>" album. </div><div><br /></div><div>How can this make economic sense? The business strategy being employed by Eidos, the supplier of Championship Manager, is what Anderson has called "Freemium". The basic game is available at 1p+ for anyone who wishes to use it. But, those who wish to keep up-to-date throughout the season will have to pay £5 for the six downloadable updates containing "all the <a href="http://www.championshipmanager.co.uk/server/show/ConWebDoc.1088">latest</a> statistics, scores, competition standings, player transfers, player stats, bookings and major injuries plus much more from the 10 leading countries in Europe"</div><div><br /></div><div>The marginal cost of distributing digital product approaches zero. The costs are all associated with producing it. But by giving the game away for nearly free will probably boost the take-up of the game and, correspondingly, the number paying for the premium service. It is also likely that there will also be cross-subsidies. Enticing players to use this free game might encourage them to purchase other products from the company. This is was how Radiohead made their money from Free.</div><div><br /></div><div>According to Anderson (p 154), <i>In Rainbows</i> became Radiohead's most successful album. It sold 3 million copies (some of which were physical copies); they made more money from the downloads than they made from the previous one; it was followed by their best-selling tour with 1.2 million tickets sold.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Notes</b></div><div>[1] King I (2009) Honesty is the best policy, The Times, August 18 2009</div><div>[2] The title is a quote from the song "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Money_(That's_What_I_Want)">Money (that's what I want)</a>" released by the Beatles on their 1963 LP, "With the Beatles". The full verse is: "The bset things in life are free, but you can keep them for the birds and bees, now give me money, that's what I want".</div></div>daveghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03419824593002430613noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7408770107544742525.post-1707841145940154502009-07-02T08:03:00.000-07:002009-07-03T00:06:02.083-07:00Love is free, free is love<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAYk7f2UWvvnEZs2gBKORSYbYfSXNgGYYChsF3oEYqcTsjfqewz-sEabSAhNPJfEcTjc4wyUXpqJv7yQCsQvOrNQCB9o8ZseOFyy0PGgKfxd8YMmRRZ5fJcg7-OYb24zT7dMqpTlYDQ_U/s1600-h/3071460645_6032a8ffde_m.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 159px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAYk7f2UWvvnEZs2gBKORSYbYfSXNgGYYChsF3oEYqcTsjfqewz-sEabSAhNPJfEcTjc4wyUXpqJv7yQCsQvOrNQCB9o8ZseOFyy0PGgKfxd8YMmRRZ5fJcg7-OYb24zT7dMqpTlYDQ_U/s320/3071460645_6032a8ffde_m.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5353888424008001922" /></a><img src="http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif" alt="Italic" border="0" class="gl_italic" /><br /><br />Chris Anderson, in his new book <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Free-Economics-Abundance-Changing-Business/dp/1905211473/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1246558164&sr=1-1">Free: The Future of a Radical Price</a>, argues that people under the age of 30 no longer expect to pay for news, music, TV, films or social networking. He suggests two models for digital media businesses to adopt if they are targeting this age group: '<i>freeconomy</i>' and 'f<i>reemium'</i>. <div><br /></div><div>Businesses operating the f<i>reeconomy</i> model, such as Google, provide content for free and generate revenue from advertising on the site. However, Anderson acknowledges that this model has lost its appeal since the onse of the credit crunch. He states "From the middle of 2008, it became clear that advertising was going to be limited. It was not going away, but it was not going to float all boats."</div><div><br /></div><div>The other 'free' business model is <i>freemium</i>, in which the basic service is free and subscibers are encouraged to upgrade and pay for additional services. Fickr, the photo sharing site, adopts this model. Basic subscribers can upload images for free, but they are restricted to 100mb storage a month and access to smaller-sized images. Premium (pro-account) subscribers pay approx £17 per annum to store an unlimited amount of photos and are able to download images in their original resolution.</div><div><br /></div><div>Spotify, which has been discussed in this blog twice previously, is an interesting case as it mixes both models. Subscribers can stream music for free, with ocassional adverts between tracks. But, by paying £10 per month, they gain access to the premium service and can listen to the music uninterupted by adverts and can also use Spotify on mobile devices.</div><div><br /></div><div>Of course, the major battle that has raged over recent years, as a result of this changing social demand for free digital media, has been between the companies who own the rights to popular music and the generation which is using BitTorrant sites to share free copies of the music. Pirate Bay, with 20 million users, has been at the forefront in this battle. In April this year, its founders were <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8003799.stm">jailed </a>for breaking the music copyright law. Would this event signal defeat for free file sharing? It appears not. Pirate Bay has just been bought by Global Gaming Comapny for £4.7 million and has devised a new free business model. More of that next time.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>Note:</div><div><br /></div><div>The title is a line from the John Lennon song <a href="http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Palladium/7821/pob70.html">Love</a> from the Plastic Ono Band LP (1970)</div>daveghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03419824593002430613noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7408770107544742525.post-6248699167613477662009-04-03T09:41:00.001-07:002009-04-10T23:44:15.892-07:00Public sector skunkworks<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_mE_vaLseENtX_IwdINe_bG9_UR1dSnEdzXcLyD2xGF3XNdeQgWpSj1rDKw29-2EAKppHoaDRdY_sieSkEVJ_fEc51VEFMCVWEPNcjAmyTfb5-aMIYqziIWJKwvtb6iJftZavMKlptzQ/s1600-h/2262240936_4fd13307a4.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 242px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_mE_vaLseENtX_IwdINe_bG9_UR1dSnEdzXcLyD2xGF3XNdeQgWpSj1rDKw29-2EAKppHoaDRdY_sieSkEVJ_fEc51VEFMCVWEPNcjAmyTfb5-aMIYqziIWJKwvtb6iJftZavMKlptzQ/s320/2262240936_4fd13307a4.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5323320431680405362" /></a><br />Last week I had a meeting with a council chief officer to discuss innovation within his authority. He characterised the council as having a 1980's culture, being very risk adverse, with a hierarchical structure and a command and control approach to management. He repeatedly used football analogies to make his point. In the innovation league, this council was mid-table.<div><br /></div><div>How does an organisation such as this set about becoming more innovative?</div><div><br /></div><div>Another chief officer in the same council suggested an approach that she has now twice tried in two different councils. This is to set up an innovation incubator, a sort of research and development unit for public sector innovation. This incubator would operate in a different way to the rest of the council. It would be more entreprenural. It would have its own culture, distinct procedures and be empowered to experiment with new technologies to the council. </div><div><br /></div><div>This is the skunkworks approach. The term was coined at Lockhead, the US aircraft manufacturer. In the 1940s, the main factory at Lockhead was assembling bombers for the British forces. They were approached by the US military to develop and build a jet fighter capable of combatting the perceived growing threat from Germany. A small team was put together, working in secret, separate from the main organisation, with the authority to take risks and make some decisions without referring to the line of command. </div><br />According to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skunk_Works">Wikipedia</a>, skunkworks is "widely used in business, engineering, and technical fields to describe a group within an organization given a high degree of autonomy and unhampered by bureaucracy, tasked with working on advanced or secret projects".<div><br /></div><div>The public sector skunkworks was an interesting organisational innovation to observe. In its three-year life it gained a number of national accolades for its technological innovations. But its distinct culture and private-sector approach caused many tensions within the council which eventually led to its demise. The Lockhead skunkworks has survived for many decades. Why did this public sector version fail so quickly?</div>daveghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03419824593002430613noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7408770107544742525.post-40938971381356299902009-03-22T13:11:00.000-07:002009-03-24T11:48:50.428-07:00No-one will be watching us, why don't we do it in the road<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxqKOyFYgstNAAukslw7dnADQNtyL1ekh9TlZdLgO2XcVrUNFnGeHfDIEVBdynzLoF0e51oVpdU1NHhcMQ1msDGcetkV3kb58kOXwJsB2BSQ1liJuijq2Fm9njB1FwDEWguPgQDIltDgU/s1600-h/296737625_82bf10cd92.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 180px; height: 257px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxqKOyFYgstNAAukslw7dnADQNtyL1ekh9TlZdLgO2XcVrUNFnGeHfDIEVBdynzLoF0e51oVpdU1NHhcMQ1msDGcetkV3kb58kOXwJsB2BSQ1liJuijq2Fm9njB1FwDEWguPgQDIltDgU/s320/296737625_82bf10cd92.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5316114890795638994" /></a><br /><div>"We live in a surveillance society." states the <a href="http://www.ico.gov.uk/upload/documents/library/data_protection/practical_application/surveillance_society_full_report_2006.pdf">Government's Information Commissioner</a>. He believes there has been a worrying rise in what he calls "dataveilance", by means of CCTV, credit card, mobile phone and loyalty card.</div><div><br /></div><div>One "best practice" example of the surveillance society was recently identified by the Guardian newspaper. It <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/mar/02/westminster-cctv-system-privacy">reported</a> that operators in Westminister council's underground CCTV control room are able to watch any London street. The article continues:</div><br />"Using the latest remote technology, the cameras rotate 360 degrees, 365 days a year, providing a hi-tech version of what the 18th century English philosopher Jeremy Bentham conceived as the "Panopticon" - a space where people can be constantly monitored but never know when they are being watched."<div><br /></div><div>Leeds-based sociologist <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zygmunt_Bauman">Zygmunt Bauman,</a> in his book <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Liquid-Modernity-Zygmunt-Bauman/dp/0745624103/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1237849624&sr=8-1">Liquid Modernity</a>, suggests that the panopticon arrangement requires both the watched and the watchers to be tied to a physical space. In Westminster case, the watched are on the streets of London and the watchers are housed in close proximity beneath the streets. Bauman proposes that we are now entering a post-panopticon stage in history. The watcher is " no longer bound, not even slowed down, by the resistance of space." </div><div><br /></div><div>Google has contributed to this post-panopticon future. Through the medium of its new Street View product, we can all peek into other people's streets, initially in major UK cities. For instance, it is possible for anyone using a computer or web-enabled mobile phone to obtain 360 degree views of some 22,000 miles of streets. The mapping of Leeds Metropolitan University's <a href="http://maps.google.co.uk/maps/mpl?layer=c&moduleurl=http://maps.google.co.uk/help/maps/streetview/mapplet.html&mapclient=google&utm_campaign=en_GB&utm_medium=mapshpp&utm_source=en_GB-mapshpp-emea-gb-gns-svn&utm_term=svl">Headingley campus</a>, for example, took place in the summer as the graduation tent was being erected. </div><div><br /></div><div>Street View has proved controversial. People caught on camera have complained. Others, such as former Prime Minister Tony Blair are <a href="http://maps.google.co.uk/maps/mpl?layer=c&moduleurl=http://maps.google.co.uk/help/maps/streetview/mapplet.html&mapclient=google&utm_campaign=en_GB&utm_medium=mapshpp&utm_source=en_GB-mapshpp-emea-gb-gns-svn&utm_term=svl">reported</a> to have demanded that their property should be blanked out and hidden from view. The post-panopticon camera it seems knows of no digital divide, it watches both the citizen and the elite who would have previously inhabited the control-tower, overseeing the activity of the watched.</div><div><br /></div><div>Footnote</div><div><br /></div><div>In October 1968, on the White Album, the Beatles could tempt my generation to "do it in the road," because no-one would be watching. If they were here today, in our liquid modernity, surrounded by dataveillance, this song would probably not have been written<br /><div><br /></div></div>daveghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03419824593002430613noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7408770107544742525.post-26139517421927453482009-03-12T15:56:00.000-07:002009-03-24T11:51:27.675-07:00I'm on the pavement thinking about the government<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiP5ugV78thA82fMAVI_3_6PbInnMe2AcOOlyPDCCHLj9SuK0y-xED6xMMhmPGqnmuvYT7veuiEpZCmPWxyKX-1c5Z6srdo_R1vo52RkrADyLMwiA0vmZf67WGzZsYKRjVcgmIZXCXc-k/s1600-h/180463799_1bf600792d.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 236px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiP5ugV78thA82fMAVI_3_6PbInnMe2AcOOlyPDCCHLj9SuK0y-xED6xMMhmPGqnmuvYT7veuiEpZCmPWxyKX-1c5Z6srdo_R1vo52RkrADyLMwiA0vmZf67WGzZsYKRjVcgmIZXCXc-k/s320/180463799_1bf600792d.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5312452500544182210" /></a><br />Once again <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7937269.stm">today</a> there is another story about the failure of public sector innovation. This time it is the national offender management information system which was set up to provide 'end-to-end offender management'. This aimed to share information between prisons and the probation service, replacing separate stand-alone systems. At its inception in 2004, the estimated lifetime cost of the system was estimated to be £234M. By 2008 the expected total cost had more than doubled.<div><br /></div><div>The <a href="http://www.nao.org.uk/publications/0809/national_offender_management.aspx">National Audit Office review</a>, published today, highlights the following failures in this project</div><div><br /></div><div>1. Senior service management did not monitor the project sufficiently.</div><div><br /></div><div>2. There was no clear governance structure in place. Roles and responsibilities were blurred.</div><div><br /></div><div>3. Poor programme management - the lack of an overall project plan; poor change control and inadequate financial control</div><div><br /></div><div>4. The need to perceive major projects as IT-enabled business change rather than technical IT projects. The 42 probation services all had individual ways of working. Trying to accommodate these led to requirements drift. Processes should have been standardised and simplified.</div><div><br /></div><div>5. Poor supplier management. This is an outsourced development, but it was not tendered for. The development progressed on a time and materials basis, racking up the costs as requirements grew. </div>daveghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03419824593002430613noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7408770107544742525.post-55163917451905030732009-03-08T10:52:00.000-07:002009-03-09T15:48:49.310-07:00a working class hero is something to be<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEXV4MSsmYBwu4IjwEI81udinE95JxWzBTwMURaxCpoSNx7hjL6e15rIzT4fg7Z-DRIlFAxcMXR1yd3R77TRcx1SGqbJYHxkAINGGuxoJEjwz0sE4eLAgqtvK77SmhsB2cdZ9j0gu8ins/s1600-h/639740500_e0ed1fcd7c.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 212px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEXV4MSsmYBwu4IjwEI81udinE95JxWzBTwMURaxCpoSNx7hjL6e15rIzT4fg7Z-DRIlFAxcMXR1yd3R77TRcx1SGqbJYHxkAINGGuxoJEjwz0sE4eLAgqtvK77SmhsB2cdZ9j0gu8ins/s320/639740500_e0ed1fcd7c.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5311248317138479522" /></a><br />Who would you say is the most new-media savvy politician in the UK? My money is on <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Prescott">John Prescott (JP)</a> the former deputy leader of New Labour, who retired from the House of Commons in 2007. He may no longer occupy a central place in the physical political sphere, but he is leading the way in showing others how to maintain an involvement and influence in the virtual political space.<div><br /></div><div>He is an active contributor to Facebook, claiming <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/hi/the_p_word/newsid_7693000/7693738.stm">1800</a> friends on the site, and is using it as a campaigning device. It is here that he is <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/feb/09/john-prescott-rbs">petitioning</a> against the bonuses being paid out to senior employees by the Royal Bank of Scotland. He is also a founder member of the campaign to get New Labout re-elected for the forth time and has a <a href="http://www.gofourth.co.uk/">Facebook</a> group supporting this. </div><div><br /></div><div>But it was on Friday last week that I was most impressed by his use of new media. His quick reaction to a breaking story gave him national coverage in the traditional media. An environmental campaigner had <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7928946.stm">thrown</a> green coloured custard at Lord Mandelson, the Business Secretary, as he set off for a low-carbon conference in London. This was reported on the Today programme on BBC Radio Four on Friday morning and it featured a comment about this incident from JP. The programme had not contacted him. He had posted this on <a href="http://www.gofourth.co.uk/peter-didnt-deserve-that">YouTub</a>e and their editors had picked it up. </div><div><br /></div><div>Perhaps they are among the 1300 people who follow him on <a href="http://twitter.com/JohnPrescott">Twitter</a>. He announced at 5.11 AM (just about the time the Today editors were finalising the stories for the programme?):</div><div><br /></div>"I've just posted a vlog on Peter and today's attack - they should arrest her"<br /><br />So there we have it. He might be retired and drawing a pension. But by actively using Facebook, Twitter and Youtube, he is able to retain an influence in politics. An influence noticed by the Today programme and the much-sought-after younger voters.<div><br /></div><div>If you think another UK politician is a worthy contender for the tile of most new-media savvy politician, I would like to hear from you.<br /><br /></div><div>Note<br />The image is courtesy of Steve Punter on Flickr at http://www.flickr.com/photos/spunter/639740500/sizes/m/</div>daveghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03419824593002430613noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7408770107544742525.post-45318004262333441982009-03-05T14:46:00.000-08:002009-03-12T15:55:51.502-07:00Spotify - You don't know what you've got til it's gone<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivKV-AVCaDTFIgvpLPJ3Th5H5bMu0zZK4j5aKMLzRdNlOLOV1KKj52awtIFaBSsq_LZfpFT2PuRecynqjTHu0J906-cEQwW_9CCxC_BeuZhEEDZcyIjrcnQpdTGDbzRVPWZGwSDoZ4AvI/s1600-h/2878194937_a001ba2b31_m.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 173px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivKV-AVCaDTFIgvpLPJ3Th5H5bMu0zZK4j5aKMLzRdNlOLOV1KKj52awtIFaBSsq_LZfpFT2PuRecynqjTHu0J906-cEQwW_9CCxC_BeuZhEEDZcyIjrcnQpdTGDbzRVPWZGwSDoZ4AvI/s320/2878194937_a001ba2b31_m.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5309851831263834914" /></a><br />I only registered with <a href="http://www.spotify.com/en/"><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">Spotify</span></a> on Monday. Since then I've become hooked. Records that have been boxed under the stairs for a couple of decades are being played again <span class="blsp-spelling-corrected" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1">courtesy</span> of this virtual jukebox. How could I live without the Faces' <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Nod-Good-Wink-Blind-Horse/dp/B001F61FG6/ref=sr_f3_3?ie=UTF8&s=dmusic&qid=1236297997&sr=103-3">A </a><span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2"><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Nod-Good-Wink-Blind-Horse/dp/B001F61FG6/ref=sr_f3_3?ie=UTF8&s=dmusic&qid=1236297997&sr=103-3">nod is</a></span><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Nod-Good-Wink-Blind-Horse/dp/B001F61FG6/ref=sr_f3_3?ie=UTF8&s=dmusic&qid=1236297997&sr=103-3"> as good as a wink to a blind horse</a> or Joni Mitchell's <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ladies-Of-The-Canyon/dp/B001F0SEZ2/ref=sr_1_39?ie=UTF8&s=dmusic&qid=1236297908&sr=8-39">Ladies of the canyon</a>?<div><br /></div><div>Then today it was <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/mar/04/online-music-spotify-hacked">reported</a> this record streaming site had been hacked, with personal data of thousands of its users being stolen.</div><div><br /></div><div>A <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3">Spotify</span> spokesman explained the extent of the data taken.</div><br />"Along with passwords, registration information such as your email address, birth date, gender, postal code and billing receipt details were potentially exposed," <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4">Spotify</span> said. "Credit card numbers are not stored by us and were not at risk."<br /><div><br /></div><div>According to <a href="http://tech.blorge.com/Structure:%20/2009/03/05/spotify-playing-the-blues-after-major-hacking-attack/">John Lister:</a></div><div><br /></div>"The attack affects the estimated 10,000 accounts which were created on or before December 19 last year. <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5">Spotify</span> found and fixed a security bug on that date, but has only just discovered people were able to exploit it."<div><br /></div><div>This story highlights the importance of website users being aware of the potential for hacking of their data and the need for them to avoid using the same password on every site they use. However, we should also expect companies, and particularly those that only operate online, to make appropriate information security arrangements.</div><br />According to the latest UK Government <a href="http://www.pwc.co.uk/eng/publications/berr_information_security_breaches_survey_2008.html">Information Security Breaches Survey</a> (2008), companies still have a way to go in taking information security seriously. For instance, 52% do not undertake formal security risk assessments; 48% of disaster recovery plans are not regularly tested and 21% of companies spend less that 1% of their IT budget on information security.<br /><br />Of course, users should be careful in their selection of <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6">usernames</span> and passwords, but we should be able to expect better than this from digital media companies.<br /><div><br /></div><div>A few years ago now, the UK bank <a href="http://www.smile.co.uk/servlet/ContentServer?c=Page&pagename=Smile%2FPage%2FsmView&cid=1023953608805">Smile</a> was able to boast that it was "the first UK online bank to be accredited with the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_27001">ISO27001</a> Information Security certification. That means we have an extremely secure Internet Banking service." </div><div><br /></div><div>It is about time that all online businesses woke up to the importance of information security and put in place the safeguards required to gain ISO27001 accreditation.</div>daveghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03419824593002430613noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7408770107544742525.post-7707817807793961502009-03-02T14:42:00.001-08:002009-03-09T15:51:34.005-07:00Spotify - the business model for recorded music?<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwIvnATYZ0unkLX5-gl8NsbScCcQMDgkdOO7_YnZtEN95YOiVzc1wY2Lw6_FQ1pdmtFxLP6H8AzJOwP3PjyfTcDt4ZMVOL9FZNwzJkbAhxfbk6Gd-V5fFwzuh12gSfd1u78O6Kr2rLtbw/s1600-h/3189842016_e72f19ba17.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 287px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwIvnATYZ0unkLX5-gl8NsbScCcQMDgkdOO7_YnZtEN95YOiVzc1wY2Lw6_FQ1pdmtFxLP6H8AzJOwP3PjyfTcDt4ZMVOL9FZNwzJkbAhxfbk6Gd-V5fFwzuh12gSfd1u78O6Kr2rLtbw/s320/3189842016_e72f19ba17.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5309069771708043938" /></a><br /><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(85, 26, 139);">Once upon a time, computer software companies developed software packages (such as Microsoft Word) and made their money be selling copies of their software to users to run on their own computers. Then along came companies like Google who changed the underlying business model. As we are all aware, Google doesn't charge for use of its products. And users don't download them to their personal machines. The applications (such as the Google search engine and Google docs) are run on Google servers. Google's income comes from the selling of advertising space to organisations. In 2008 quarter 4, it <a href="http://www.iht.com/articles/2009/01/22/technology/23google.php">reported</a> income of approximately $6 billion, up 18% on the previous year.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(85, 26, 139);"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(85, 26, 139);">The music industry has been in need of a new business model for some time. The British Phonograph Industry (BPI) and the major record labels have suffered loss of income in recent years as many music consumers have used peer-to-peer networks to obtain copies of songs rather than purchase them from record shops. The BPI <a href="http://www.bpi.co.uk/index.asp?Page=piracy/content_file_79.shtml">estimates</a> the industry has lost £1 billion of income in the past three years. The online record stores, such as i-tunes, have had some success but these are still based upon the 'outdated' business model.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(85, 26, 139);"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(85, 26, 139);">Now we are starting to see in the music industry a similar development to that which occurred in the software industry several years ago. Sites such as <a href="http://www.last.fm/">LastFM</a> and <a href="http://www.spotify.com/en/">Spotify</a> are streaming music for free and making money from onsite advertising. A proportion of Spotify's <a href="http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/b6d94fe2-06ca-11de-ab0f-000077b07658.html?nclick_check=1">income</a> is distributed to the music companies. It is currently experiencing a dramatic growth. In just six months since it launched, Spotify now has more than <a href="http://www.spotify.com/blog/archives/2009/03/02/spotify-reaches-one-million-users-worldwide/">one million users</a>.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(85, 26, 139);"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(85, 26, 139);">Will this new model work? Will it provide sufficient income for the music providers and will it tempt customers to convert from illegal downloading to streaming instead?</span></div>daveghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03419824593002430613noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7408770107544742525.post-15456943316822653432009-02-06T11:41:00.000-08:002009-02-07T08:01:34.784-08:00The SCAMPER creativity technique<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYqUVSjqCqLO5KGBf6r2RiHBbrpraLNMCjZdidEAKp2O-9ethJu0dwlrZxChIA3KJTa1nvenujUf0zNa8bxtI70DMcLN7RrQiKoikvTzkeEX3Ionpi3D4jPbobXU496dOip9TMxa2f8S4/s1600-h/129226539_4b8879a23a.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 220px; height: 139px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYqUVSjqCqLO5KGBf6r2RiHBbrpraLNMCjZdidEAKp2O-9ethJu0dwlrZxChIA3KJTa1nvenujUf0zNa8bxtI70DMcLN7RrQiKoikvTzkeEX3Ionpi3D4jPbobXU496dOip9TMxa2f8S4/s320/129226539_4b8879a23a.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5299778550340525746" /></a><br />At i-camp, the problem we will be trying to solve is:<div><br /></div><div>How might I commercialise our final year project? </div><div><br /></div><div>You will be looking at your projects from the enterprise perspective. There are a wide range of projects in the final year group: games, animations, compositions, computer systems, strategies, etc. Your <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mI9KhPJ-utE&feature=related">mission</a> in this module (starting at i-camp) will be to come up with ideas about how to develop it, change it, pitch it at a particular market as a means of making a living from this activity.</div><div><br /></div><div>One technique that you might use to generate ideas for this is SCAMPER. This technique allows a group of people to brainstorm alternatives and decide on potential answers. In its way, I suppose, it is the problem solving equivalent to a group of musicians jamming their way to a new composition.</div><div><br />"Each letter in the acronym represents a different way you can play with the characteristics of what is challenging you to trigger new ideas:<br /><br />S = Substitute<br />C = Combine<br />A = Adapt<br />M = Magnify<br />P = Put to Other Uses<br />E = Eliminate <br />R = Rearrange (or Reverse)"(2)<br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>If you would like to give this approach a try, the site <a href="http://litemind.com/scamper/">LiteMind</a> has a <a href="http://litemind.com/scamper-tool/">SCAMPER random question tool</a>, which is fun to use.</div><div><br /></div><div>Let's run through an example and explore how SCAMPER provides triggers to get our ides flowing. Take one of last year's projects. This project was to produce a social networking site for university students. Let's use a few SCAMPER questions, chosen using the random generator, to help us to brainstorm ideas.</div><div><br /></div><div>(Substitute) Can I use this idea in a different place?</div><div>The project was aimed at UK university students. Could we target an overseas market? This might be young people living abroad - one of the group was from Hong Kong and keen to apply it to that market. </div><div><br />(Adapt) Whom could I emulate?<br /></div><div><br /></div><div>My favourite musician, Sir Paul McCartney, sometimes uses this to begin writing a new song. For instance, on <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaos_and_Creation_in_the_Backyard">Chaos and Creation in the Back Yard</a>, he tried to emulate the late George Harrison on <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2M9MZ5BZas">Friends to Go</a> and on <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvqvg2yaJT4">Anyway</a> he composed the piece trying to sound like Randy Newman. It seems that thinking about how someone else might carry out the task can be a spur to even the most creative of individuals!</div><div><br /></div><div>(Magnify) What can be magnified or made larger?</div><div><br />One student in this group was from the International faculty, taking Spanish. He had the idea that the 'budying' aspect of this could be amplified. This led him to explore how it could be turned into a system for foreign students at Leeds Met to buddy up with home students who are studying their language.<br /></div><div><br /></div><div>(Put to other use) What else can it be used for?</div><div><br /></div><div>The project brief was to develop a social networking system for university students. One of the students was very interested in fashion in Hong Kong and had the idea of putting the project to this use. He evetually settled on the idea of a social networking system for those planning a wedding in HK.</div><div><br /></div><div>(Eliminate) What features could I understate or omit?</div><div><br /></div><div>Under this heading the students might have discussed whether removing some of the features might have altered the project and made it more saleable or usable in a particular market.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>(Rearrange) What if I try doing the eact opposite of what I intended?</div><div><br /></div><div>What if they turned the project on its head and instead made it a system that was a networking system about students but not for students' use? Perhaps it could be a means for tutors to contribute to an online reference for students.</div><div><br /></div><div>I trust you now can see how one group might have used SCAMPER to generate ideas for turning your final year project into an enterprsie.</div><div><br /></div><div>There will be plenty of time for this verbal jamming(3) with your project team and a range of different people at i-camp. </div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>Notes</div><div>(1) The image of the drummer in the band Scamper is taken from<br />http://www.flickr.com/photos/mike-burns/129226539/sizes/m/<br /></div><div><br /></div><div>(2) Source: Passuellio J (2008) Creative Problem Solving with SCAMPER http://litemind.com/scamper/ [Accessed 5th February, 2008]</div><div>(3) I hope your jamming is more tuneful than this rare footage of the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYqCpvzXGTE">Beatles</a> jamming!</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>daveghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03419824593002430613noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7408770107544742525.post-48822923369766720082009-01-30T10:28:00.000-08:002009-02-08T12:58:27.520-08:00Innovation in the public sector<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmr5PI8CqjYcYUVGF7k43QqTVLv8sJrHKpxiZfW3S7ftEyfe7tb0gCm11X9nG_OS-Pwm5sARzsDWGuHgO9RZGgGA0KpXR86iPVq6dbhKkZTunbdDCuOEkBV6uKrXptsALqn3O-OCJxH4Y/s1600-h/3036254720_052d0020cc.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmr5PI8CqjYcYUVGF7k43QqTVLv8sJrHKpxiZfW3S7ftEyfe7tb0gCm11X9nG_OS-Pwm5sARzsDWGuHgO9RZGgGA0KpXR86iPVq6dbhKkZTunbdDCuOEkBV6uKrXptsALqn3O-OCJxH4Y/s200/3036254720_052d0020cc.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5297179088205619906" /></a><br />How innovative are our local councils?<div><br /></div><div>Text books tend to look to the private sector for examples of innovation. The public sector usually only gets mentioned when its large-scale technology-based projects misfire. Recent examples include the <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2009/jan/27/nhs-it-computer-programme-health-public-accounts-committee">NHS patient records system</a> and the <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6192419.stm">national identity card scheme</a>.</div><div><br /></div><div>In reality, there is quite a lot of council innovation taking place. The <a href="http://www.beacons.idea.gov.uk/idk/core/page.do?pageId=5096154">Beacon scheme</a>, for example, is an award scheme that celebrates innovative practice by councils. This particular scheme highlights key differences between public and private sector innovation. Firstly, in the public sector, innovators are encouraged to share their knowledge with others. Councils awarded beacon status are expected to devote time to diffuse their innovation throughout the sector. A second distinguishing feature of public sector practice is the complex mixture of process and product innovation present in service improvement.</div><div><br /></div><div>To take one example. <a href="http://www.beacons.idea.gov.uk/idk/core/page.do?pageId=8481736">Staffordshire Moorlands</a> established a project to improvel access to its services in rural areas. This innovation comprised of some new products (eg information kiosks, e-bus) and some new processes (eg a joint visiting service along with the Pensions Agency and the County Council Social Servces Department).</div><div><br /></div><div><img style="float:left; margin:5 5 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 300px;" src="http://images.businessweek.com/ss/07/06/0615_disruptive/image/intro.jpg" border="5" alt="" />Most local authority innovation is what <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0875845851/ref=sib_rdr_dp">Christensen</a> calls 'sustaining technology'. These innovations "improve the performance of established products, along dimensions of performance the mainstream customers in major markets have historically valued." (Christensen, 1997, pp. XV). In a future blog we shall consider an example of council innovation which might be considered to be a 'disruptive' technology.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /></div><div>Notes </div><div><br /></div><div>The image at the top of this blog represents Warhol's Light Bulbs - source http://www.flickr.com/photos/zetson/3036254720/ </div>daveghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03419824593002430613noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7408770107544742525.post-35940990133911121382009-01-25T12:51:00.000-08:002009-01-25T22:52:02.326-08:00If music be the food of love, play on!<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEip_wkqb81KdRYy7zsqW5nh61fCIIeCnOg5EFDZOWsIBvqbM8LJ1s8XejS6UP2Y0xKia0zw9zmJFVGd7nlHIkbhi1cY9lI4HFG4UlePGqNwcwYs8FF9U6bJn4NQ2-2npPcvU3wGM503Scg/s1600-h/91805686_7865ad15c2_o.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 194px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEip_wkqb81KdRYy7zsqW5nh61fCIIeCnOg5EFDZOWsIBvqbM8LJ1s8XejS6UP2Y0xKia0zw9zmJFVGd7nlHIkbhi1cY9lI4HFG4UlePGqNwcwYs8FF9U6bJn4NQ2-2npPcvU3wGM503Scg/s200/91805686_7865ad15c2_o.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5295342490114985218" /></a><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Forty years ago this week, on 31st Jan 1969, the Beatles gave their final live performance on the roof of the Apple building at 3 Savile Row, London (1). For those walking by in the streets below, taking a break from the office, on a shopping trip, or sightseeing, this must have been the ultimate free music download.<br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Musicians, like many others involved in the creative industries, often feel that they are driven by artistic desire, playing for love, rather than being motivated to be enterprising. It was interesting then to read an article in last Friday’s Times (2) which illustrates the innovative way in which some musicians are tackling the commercialization of their music product.<br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">To finance their music, a new band would have traditionally approached the AR departments of the large music companies. But nowadays, faced by falling record sales and the credit crunch, music labels are not signing the number of acts that they once did. <a href="http://www.sellaband.com/">Sellaband</a> is a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_2">Web 2.0</a> website which introduces a new business model for commercializing music. Bands post their music on the site and fans are given the option to invest in them. When sufficient investors have come forward to support the music of a particular artist, the company behind the site will produce and promote the record. The band and the investing public also receive a share in any profits generated. However, not <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2007/mar/15/sellabandsmusicbusinessrevo">everyone</a> is convinced that this new business model will succeed.<br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In a second example mentioned in the Times' article, duo <a href="http://www.myspace.com/honeyrydertheband">Honey Ryder</a> recognized that aspiring musicians need more than just good music, they also need a business plan. Honey Ryder took theirs to the annual music industry <a href="http://www.midem.com/App/homepage.cfm?moduleid=399&appname=100508">conference</a> in Cannes last week looking for 100 investors to buy shares in their business.<a href="http://www.myspace.com/honeyrydertheband"><br /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">So was Shakespeare correct when he wrote “If music be the food of love, play on” ? (3) May be, but as the examples above illustrate, today's musicians also need to use their creative skills to explore new ways of financing their artistic endeavors.<br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Footnotes:<br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;">(1) It was at this performance, after playing the song Get Back, that John Lennon famously uttered the comment: "I'd like to say 'thank you' on behalf of the group and ourselves and I hope we passed the audition!"<br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">(2) Sherwin A (2009) Forget autographs, what about shares in a favourite pop star? The Times, 23rd January 2009<br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div>(3) Twelfth Night<br /><br /><br /></div>daveghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03419824593002430613noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7408770107544742525.post-3295614635491573012008-02-07T12:52:00.000-08:002008-02-12T04:21:59.409-08:00The first internet wedding<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilbTLPJx6wKIh0cj2rtKpzs8VjIuCsIIocdis0MifP_YnJPJ61y9wwxofSVIvM4zFxtVqynxP1JQIDR2K1k4SfOjwht2wVXcYQCMk7ljnlmdajKY95jJNyQsefDGpxAUkPPKbt-zYrhgM/s1600-h/victorial+internet.jpeg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5166065104688304386" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilbTLPJx6wKIh0cj2rtKpzs8VjIuCsIIocdis0MifP_YnJPJ61y9wwxofSVIvM4zFxtVqynxP1JQIDR2K1k4SfOjwht2wVXcYQCMk7ljnlmdajKY95jJNyQsefDGpxAUkPPKbt-zYrhgM/s200/victorial+internet.jpeg" border="0" /></a>It's Valentine's Day this week so we need a story that links love and innovation.<br /><br />How about the first internet wedding? It happened in 1848. At that time, the world was getting used to a disruptive innovation. This was the telegraph. The continents were becoming joined together for the first time by cables laid under the oceans to form a networked society. Before the telegraph, information travelled over land at the speed of a horse, perhaps 40 miles a day. So news from London would probably take four days to reach Leeds. The telegraph enabled information to be transmitted from one place to another in a matter of minutes. The network gradually extended across Europe, over to North America, on to India, Australia and beyond. The world must have felt like a global village, with information travelling so quickly from any place on the network to any other place, however near or far. The diffusion of this innovation is described more fully in The Victorian Internet by Tom Standage (384.109 STA in the library). <div><div><br /><div></div><div>In this book, Standage tells the story of a wedding that was conducted using this Victorian internet. The bride was the daughter of a Boston businessman who had fallen in love with one of the clerks at her father's business. Her father was unhappy with their relationship and wanted her to marry someone more 'appropriate'. To prevent the marriage, he sent the clerk to England on business. Of course, at this time transatlantic travel was undertaken by ship. Its first port of call was New York.</div><br /><div></div><div>The enterprising young woman sent a message to her intended, asking him to go to the New York telegraph office, accompanied by a magistrate, at an agreed time. She was in the Boston telegraph office at that same time. The magistrate then conducted the marriage ceremony over the wires, with the bride and groom being assisted by the telegraph operators who translated their vows into Morse code.</div><br /><div></div><div>It is hard to believe, but the marriage was deemed to be legal.</div><br /><div></div><div>We sometimes state that innovation is socially shaped. The artefact alone is not the innovation. Here is an example of an artefact (the telegraph) that was devised for one social purpose being adapted to be used for a completely different purpose. </div><br /><div></div><div>Some of our students are exhibiting a similar degree of creativity in their studies on the Innovation & Enterprsie module. These students are taking the product being developed in their project module and showing how they now might use it as the artefactual basis of an entirely different innovation. </div><br /><div></div><div>Happy Valentine's Day!</div></div></div>daveghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03419824593002430613noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7408770107544742525.post-88129800581947802722007-12-06T06:26:00.000-08:002007-12-06T12:13:26.515-08:00A beacon to us all - is innovation always good for us?<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsn8j-HS-qtashXOHRguMbdY8iK4Sf2yo_hePnS8CzfcUV8CpL23YKi6wcP41YXgWuHvem1nYzWnILb-w-pTaztbHls8s9Da-bwJmgZwWiOnf60PryKfw2ha4v1jkKO2P7DlL7JWCB_BY/s1600-h/zuckerberg..jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5140944850676781426" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; CURSOR: hand" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsn8j-HS-qtashXOHRguMbdY8iK4Sf2yo_hePnS8CzfcUV8CpL23YKi6wcP41YXgWuHvem1nYzWnILb-w-pTaztbHls8s9Da-bwJmgZwWiOnf60PryKfw2ha4v1jkKO2P7DlL7JWCB_BY/s200/zuckerberg..jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><div>Today Facebook's founder, Mark Zuckerberg,<a href="http://blog.facebook.com/"> apologised </a>for the mistakes the company had made during the build and implementation of its social advertising system called Beacon.<br /><br />He explained that the company had set out to build something that was easy to use : "our goal was to build a simple product to let people share information across sites with their friends."<br /><br />In his blog, Zuckerman stressed that Beacon is a product which helps <a href="http://www.facebook.com/">Facebook</a> users to share additional information with others. It is interesting that he omits to mention its intended use for raising adverting revenue!<br /><br />How does Beacon work? It tracks Facebook users' purchases online at sites registered with the system and then advertises these purchases to members of their social network. Follow this <a href="http://blogs.forrester.com/charleneli/2007/11/close-encounter.html">link </a>to read how one Facebook user found out about purchases made by her husband from her PC.<br /><br />Most commentators have picked up on the <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7120916.stm">privacy issue</a> related to this story. Our interest, in this blog, is to note its lessons for students of innovation.<br /><br />These include:<br /><br />1. Organisations should make sure that their investment appraisal evalaution techniques extend beyond a consideration of technical issues and a cost benefit analysis. This company might have incuded some appraisal of the likely impact on its users and the consequent reputational damage it might suffer.<br /><br />2. Innovation does not always benefit all stakeholders or wider society. It might affect people in society who are not even directly users of the innovative product or service.<br /><br />This leaves us considering the question: "At what point does an innovation, that turns into a disaster from the shareholder perspective, become known as a bad idea rather than an innovation at all?<br /><div><br /><div><p></p><br /><p>photo: courtesey of <a href="http://www.blogger.com/laughingsquid.com">Scott Beale / Laughing Squid </a></p></div></div></div>daveghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03419824593002430613noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7408770107544742525.post-51415065550864672642007-12-04T12:13:00.000-08:002009-02-06T11:41:05.160-08:00Do we need another blogger?<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWLIWPX1mW6UUmFfVZ49UrL6mQaVEjEmd_CiLLcMtKJx-QTuuQ__jo0t2lkvig2Y_Ok1gus4gJTWgE4ktepwQ30Bsga2C-pTE6noqDKrNAmavxzYDFwcAPwskLty4eyj4PIkFf4p4n8cM/s1600-h/jgrahamreinhold.jpg"></a><br /><div>According to a recent <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4737671.stm">report </a>on the BBC website, a new blog is created every second.<br /><br />So why do we need another?<br /><br />Perhaps we are already inundated with general blogs. But this one has been set up a specific purpose. It is primarily aimed at students studying on undergraduate and postgraduate innovation and enterprise courses. Over the coming months, this blog will give us the space to reflect more fully on aspects of innovation that have been introduced during the innovation course. We also plan to discuss some topical stories, drawing upon theoretical concepts introduced on the course to aid our understanding of the issues.<br /><br />So, there we are. Another blog has been created. I hope you find something of interest in some of our postings.</div>daveghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03419824593002430613noreply@blogger.com0