citizenbay

TxtEagle: Mobile crowdsourcing and Micro Jobs

TxtEagle, started in its original form in 2008 by a young computer engineer named Nathan Eagle, and now based in Boston U.S., has 10,000 people working for it in Kenya.

Txteagle does not rent office space for these workers, nor do the company’s officers interview them, or ever talk to most of them.

The jobs - short stretches of speech to be transcribed or translated into a local dialect, search engine results to be checked, images to be labeled, short market research surveys to be completed - come in over a worker’s own cellphone and the worker responds either by speaking into the phone or texting back the answer. The workers can be anyone with a cellphone - a secretary waiting for a bus, a Masai tribesman herding cattle, a student between classes, a security guard on a slow day, or one of Kenya’s tens of millions of unemployed. The jobs take at most a few minutes and pay a few cents each (payment is sent by cellphone as well), but a dedicated worker can earn a few dollars a day in a part of the world where that is a significant sum.

Two issues here: One exciting, one cautionary...

This is another example of the mobile as a source of work through crowdsourcing. This has to be applauded and investigated further by other companies. This is the exciting bit.

The cautionary part of the story is the pay rates. There has to be a commitment by each company going down this route to abide by standards of pay and protection that employees in other areas of work have. 

An Open Letter to Brands & Organisations - from a left-handed person

Dear Brand or Organisation,

8% of the world's population is left-handed. Not the majority, but a fair few nonetheless.

Most products in the world are designed with right-handed people in mind - left-handed people just have to make do.

We are not just talking about a pair of scissors here. Left-handed people get used to having to live in right-handed communities, where everything from the essential things to the luxuries in life cater to right-handed citizens only.

Doors, electronic equipment, food packaging and even the way hotel rooms are laid out - all examples of where right-handed design and manufacturing occurs.

So what's this Open Letter about?

Well, this is not about a desire for a left-handed political movement or a pressure group to force governments to ensure the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is accorded to left-handed people around the world - though that might be a good idea, given the continued poor treatment of kids who are left-handed in some cultures.

History is not on the left-hander's side either, portraying us the unclean, sinners, devil-worshippers, or just plain weird. Somehow though we have survived and even flourished.

This comes to the reason I am posting this Open Letter.

It is a call to organisations and companies to consider 8% of the people who use your products and services. You talk about brand experiences, you talk about customer service, you talk about listening to customers. That's nice.

Yet too many of your promises are based on a right-handed perspective.

Why not design for left-handed people as well as right?

Manufacture for left-handed as well as right.

Think left handed as well as right.

Why have 120 versions of a right-handed suit when having ONE left-handed suit would attract potentially a whole new set of customers to your door?

Why design apps for the iPhone that can't be used by 8% of iPhone users, when a little bit of extra programming time would ensure it would be accessible to ALL iPhone users.

In tough economic times, shouldn't all organisations and brands be thinking of attracting ALL potential customers, rather than continually ignore a community?

Smart brands and organisations will provide products and services to this largely untapped community. To that end, I have decided to create the Left-Hand Friendly campaign, which will highlight the companies and organisations that have made an effort to consider the needs and wants of the left-handed communities around the world.

So here are my next steps:

1    Have a pretty logo for 'Left-Hand Friendly' . (Any designers interested in helping me out?)

2    Encourage LH folk to join me.

3    Refine my first attempt of measuring a company's contribution to being Left-Hand Friendly.

4    Start awarding the LHF logo to brands and organisations.

5    Make a LHF list of brands and organisations who have contributed to making things better/easier for left-handed people.

So dear Brand or Organisation, if you are already delivering to the Left-Handed community, please let me know, and I will get your name on the list.

If you are a brand or organisation that cannot see economic benefits in catering to left-handed folk, or are bemused by the world of left-handedness, then feel free to contact me via the blog.

Thanks for your time

Paul

 

curious: Finding brand inspiration in bar-codes

 


Young French children have enjoyed the phenomenally brilliant books of Claude Ponti for some time. His stories have a wonderful simplicity for children, yet with powerful messages that the parents connect with at the same time.

His art is equally impressive, but nothing is more impressive than his designs for the bar-codes. Each book has it's own brilliantly designed bar-code, using the characters of the book.

 

Ponti took something that was neutral, uninteresting and ignored by the consumer, and turned it into an integral part of the product.

curiousbusiness:
All neutral and seemingly uninteresting parts of your business can offer inspirational opportunities from a marketing perspective. Audit the boring bits and challenge yourself to flip the model.

What are you doing about integrating the bar-code into your marketing strategies?

2011 Brand Planning: An Architect's focus on the Space not the Bricks

Architects imagine, design and create buildings for society - housing, offices, public buildings and more.

Buildings take on an immense emotional importance for the individual - my flat, my house, my local school. Yet this emotional importance is equaled at a community level, where certain buildings become symbolic of the community. Such is the case with the phenomenal Casa Batllo of Barcelona, a building that tells the story of the dragon's battle with the patron saint of Catalunya, St George (Jordi).

(Source: laura padgett)

However, buildings are merely the framework within which human interaction takes place. It is the space within the building where the true experience occurs.

Hence my fascination with architecture and the architectural importance of space.

I am particularly intrigued by architects who design for the people who will inhabit the space and bring it alive, rather than architects who view the building as the end itself. Now I am sure that all architects will say they design for the people who will inhabit the space. Yet let's be serious here. I think we can all name buildings that have no soul. We know buildings that are cold. Or buildings that do not encourage positive human interaction. 

Yet we also pass through buildings that seem to do the opposite. Buildings that encourage smiles and joy. Buildings that people want to spend time in.

Buildings are like brands really.

And the architects of brands are faced with the same challenges that architects of buildings face.

Do the brand architects imagine, design and put into effect brand strategies with the product itself the focal point?

Or do they imagine, design and put into effect brand strategies that will resonate with the people who may use the product?

Brand architects need to think more about the space around the product, rather than the product itself. A focus on the people who may connect with the product rather than the product itself. Greater emphasis on the space will pay dividends

I came across a great example of a brand that is focusing on the 'Space' not the 'Bricks'.

(Thanks to Faris Jakob for this example)

A brand that responds to customer tweets with such energy and creativity is a brand that is considering the space, not the bricks. A brand that is willing to take risks to explore their relationship with their customers. 

So as I prepare to plan brand strategies for clients for next week/month/year, I am going to be thinking more about the space than ever before...within the space lies inspiration for me. Hope it does for you.