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Footnote to 2013

By Mike King

There I was happily rolling along towards the Christmas holidays smugly sneering at the thought that the word of the year, ‘selfie’, was an apt footnote to 2013.  

As you may well recall, back in November The Oxford Dictionaries announced that the obsession many people have for posting pouting self portraits on social media sites is so widespread that it had selected ‘selfie’ as its word of the year.  According to its researchers, in spite of the word being around since 2002, instances of its use increased on social media and photo sharing sites by a staggering 17,000 percent during 2013.  Not a great choice, given that those people hardly need any more attention, but anyway, selfie it is. 

However, now it appears that things are not quite so straightforward.  This week, rival The Collins Online Dictionary has announced that its word of the year is ‘geek’.  Geek?  A word that didn’t even make the shortlist for the Oxford Dictionaries selection. Clearly, a month is a long time in the world of words of the year.  Given that both words are directly linked to technology, if nothing else, this is yet another clear illustration of how technology is increasingly dominating all aspects of our lives.

The word Geek, apparently, has been around since the 19^th century when it was used to describe a simpleton. Maybe there is a more of a link between geek and selfie than I first thought.  

Le Web: innovation made in France

By Violaine Desmons

“We are not in California. We’re French” – Arnaud Montebourg, French Industrial Renewal Minister

This week, Le Web conference took place in Paris. More than 3000 participants from 80 countries attended this major event dedicated to international startups and web entrepreneurs. During this, the tenth anniversary of the event, the French web entrepreneur Loïc Lemeur who founded it, put the focus of the 2013 edition on innovations for “The Next 10 Years”.

According to attendants, big trends for the next ten years are mostly related to the spread of connected objects and the erasure of the line between reality and digital worlds. For enterprises, it means the future is linked with “open innovation” concepts: today’s enterprises should work together with employees, customers, providers and also external developers across a common and open network. Trying to develop internally – and secretly – their own innovations through old R&D strategies is not an option any more.

Business models have to be reviewed according to the new technological environment and major trend evolutions in terms of user experience. For example, digital platforms offer a new way to communicate with the whole business ecosystem that allows enterprises to have more interaction with their customers, while also providing an open development environment.

Moreover the increase of interaction between enterprises and their clients and the multiplication of connected devices and objects will generate a huge amount of “Big Data”.

France, the new silicon valley?

Consequently, Big Data – or more accurately the enhancement of Big Data – is listed among key trends for the French industrial innovation programme, recently announced by the French President François Hollande. France understands new technologies and innovations, having hosted for ten years the most important and influential event dedicated to the web industry and its evolution. Even if Loïc Lemeur has moved to Silicon Valley, he continues to organise LeWeb in his home country. 

However, the French government seems to deplore French startups which move over to Silicon Valley, and the fact that US net giants try to acquire promising French startups such as Dailymotion. The French Industrial Renewal Minister, Arnaud Montebourg, who is one of most zealous French partisans of “Le made in France”, participated in a debate with web entrepreneurs at Le Web. As the government representative, he explained – in English – the French vision of innovation. But even in French, he should have kept it quiet…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 To conclude:

Will flying parcels set customer expectation too high?

 By Jonathan Mathias

Reading about Amazon’s delivery drones earlier this week you would be forgiven for thinking that April Fool’s day had come four months early.  If the firm’s ‘Prime’ annual-fee delivery model hadn’t disrupted things enough, the half-hour deliveries claimed by ‘Prime Air’ will surely push convenience and an expectation of near instant gratification from online retail to dizzying new heights.  There are plenty of questions regarding the practicalities and logistics of such a service but, above all that, what does it say about what we as customers are going to come to expect? 

In any service industry, companies must carefully manage customer expectation in order to mitigate any avoidable PR incidents resulting from disgruntled consumers.  This is especially true given that anyone can – and will – air any frustrations online within seconds.  I’m old enough to remember the birth of ecommerce and how amazing it was to buy anything online at all.   Move along a few years and if we aren’t able to find a product online the moment we think to buy it, and if it doesn’t arrive promptly, it feels like some kind of outrageous liberty has been taken away from us.  And God forbid any retailer that doesn’t immediately reply to a ‘where’s my stuff’ query. 

The more we come to expect, the bigger the issue it is when something goes wrong and the bigger the need for firms to be prepared to handle customer queries and complaints instantly.  It will be interesting to see if flying drone deliveries really do take off, but I’m equally curious about the technology that will support the inevitable impact this will have on customer relations.