Corporate open learning resource

What did I observe?

Customers don’t just buy products and services from corporations. They also learn from them. They don’t just learn things that will benefit the corporations’ sales. For example, if they learn how to protect their love ones by buying life insurance, they might buy life insurance from AIA who offers them a free seminar on financial planning.

They also learn things which will not help coporations’ sales. For example, when they watch a video on personal development at Talks@Google, they don’t use Google more.

It will be interesting to see:

Will more corporations release their in house learning resources to the public?
Will customers prefer to buy from corpoations that they have learned from versus those that they did not?

What do I called this observation?

Corporate open learning resource

Conversation Triangle

One of my favorite pass times is meeting up with friends to chat about ideas that I discovered. As I observed what I do during these discussions, I discovered that I basically behaved in 3 ways:

1. I broaden the idea.
   
2. I deepen the understanding of the idea.
   
3. I connect the idea to another idea.
   

I came up with a diagram to show how I behaved in these discussions.

I name the diagram the Conversation Triangle.

It consists of 4 points

1. I = Idea
   
2. B = Broaden Idea
   
3. C = Connected Idea
   
4. D = Deepen Understanding
   

6 relationships

1. IB = Action of broadening the idea
   
2. IC = Action of connecting the idea to another idea
   
3. ID = Action of deepening the understanding of the idea
   
4. BC = Action of connecting the broaden idea to another idea
   
5. BD = Action of deepening the understanding of the broaden idea
   
6. CD = Action of deepening the understanding of the idea that was connected to

Starbucks customer innovation

What I read?

My Starbucks Idea

Starbucks have started a web site to collect suggestions from customers.

 

Where did I read it from?

Hey, Starbucks, how about coffee cubes?

Jeff Jarvis

BusinessWeek 15 Apr 2008

 

What sense did I make out of it?

Companies are experimenting to connect closer to customers. They are beginning to understand that customers can help them to innovate.

Whole Earth Catalog legacy

One of the things I observe on remarkable people like Buckminster Fuller ( Bucky ) is that they influence people with their ideas. Their ideas can through time lag become artifacts ( products ), services or improved versions of the ideas.

Bucky have inspired Stewart Brand to create the Whole Earth Catalog ( WEC ). It is a catalog of learning resources for an individual to take his own initiate to do his own learning. I recently watched a video ( 1hr 46 mins ) on the legacy of the Whole Earth Catalog.

What I found interesting in the video:

1. The impact of the WEC is that it created a culture of learning through making.
   
2. The WEC change Kevin Kelly's life as he realize that he did not need to go to collage after reading the catalog.
   
3. Stewart Brand was inspired by Bucky to create WEC as a tool to enable people to create change.
   

What did you found interesting in the video?

Yosemite Photos

Date: 22 Apr 2008

Place: Yosemite National Park, CA, United States

Experience: mountains, trees, water falls, wild life, area of outstanding beauty

San Francisco Photos

Date: 19 - 29 Apr 2008
Place: around San Francisco, CA, United States
Experience: Interesting

Portland Photos

Date: 16 - 19 Apr 2008
Place: Portland, OR, United States
Experience: bookshops, cafes, parks, river, hanging out, walking