It looks like cell phones today have so many features that it is becoming less phone and more everything else. The new trend, when it comes to transforming your mobile phone into something else, is turning it into a Loyalty Card Collector. Startups like CardStar and CardBank already offer business a solution that uses barcodes to virtualize loyalty cards and store them in mobile phones. There are plenty of others, like Foursquare, Loopt, Shopkick and Gowalla, and they all aim basicaly on the same target, though using different techniques.

After reading about this subject, I just realized that most of these tools almost always requires users to act in order to redeem cards or register their presence in a given place, and that’s a real show stopper. Sometimes, we just don’t have the time or don’t remember to use our mobiles to redeem the cards. I think that the contender that come with an idea to skip this process will gain the biggest market presence.

One idea is to combine all possible informations about a customer, his credit cards, bluetooth ID, mobile phone details, phone number, etc. And whenever the customer uses his credit card, the cash register would try to connect via bluetooth to the customer’s phone to store his loyalty card automatically and register his presence in the store and keep a log of whatever he consumed or bought. This would be a really good catch, and would encourage people to leave their bluetooth receiver activate all time.

The Loyalty Card redeeming system can take advantage that customers’ bluetooth is active and send in relevant advertisements based on what he has consumed or bought lately in that store, or suggestions on how to redeem the loyalty cards he gathered.

We could add integration to other social medias (like facebook, twitter, tumblr, etc.), but the core goal is to avoid user from the need of interacting with his mobile phone in order to redeem the card after purchase.

When it comes to Technology today, Usability and Relationship are the king. If your system offers good usability and is capable of relating stuffs and people in a very usable manner, then you’re half way to success, and that’s what I think these guys are missing at Loyalty Mobile Systems.

It is wonderful how powerful communication through social media is. If you simply start following the right people on Twitter, you’ll get a clear glimpse of what is happening around the world, as well as local and worldwide trends. Just mentioned that, because I was reading some tweeks, and came across one that was sent by a Social Network for avid book readers, and that is ultra cool. Just took some time, and signed in to that social network (called Skoob) and tried to figure out how it worked.

I love reading (and even listenning to audio books), so this social network was something I was really looking for for a long long time. There, you can keep track of books you read, are reading, abandoned, is planning to read and leave reviews. You friends can just come and look at your bookshelf to figure out what you’ve being reading and your comments and recommendations on those books.

Found two downsides in Skoob, though:

1. It is a brazilian social network, and though I love my country and would love to see one of our social networks shine among the others, I just realized it is still a localized network focused on brazilian trends and portuguese books. That was quite a downside for me, as I’ve being reading a lot of foreign books, and have plenty of friends that doesn’t speak portuguese but that would benefit from my reviews.
2. It doesn’t have too many books yet. Just tried some books I read recently, and had to register myself 2 or 3 of them. If I get to my real bookshelf, I’ll find some hundreds of books (some of them are rare) and registering all of them simply doesn’t fit my fancy.
3. Ok, it was three actually. It is beta, and server response is really slow. Registering a single book just took me a whole lot of time and got me really bored.

Then, disappointed enough I just decided to go out and look for something more solid or closer to what I am looking for.

But, before going further, I would like to state that I don’t want to sound like I don’t want you to use Skoob. It is a great social network, have accomplished a lot already and it is a small start up striving to get mainstream. They’re just doing fine, they’re focusing on brazilian needs and I’m proud to see what they’ve accomplished this far. I will certainly revisit it in a near future.

That said, I’ll get into the next part. I googled and found other social networks like scoob, and decided to review the most promising one I’ve found. Here is the list of contenders:

1. Skoob
2. Good Reads
3. Library Thing
4. Shelfari

In order to review them, I decided to sign in, create a profile, add a common set of books and evaluate the overall usability of the website. Here is the common set of books I decided to add:

• Crush it!
• The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
• Rework
• The Book of Mormon

These are all well best sellers and known books, and any readers’ social network must have them.

Skoob

Thanks to @heitordelima, the friend that had a tweet sent through Skoob. That tweet presented me the network, and that’s why it is so important to integrate with Twitter and Facebook these days, no matter what your business is (if you want to get big). As I said before, this is a very good social network, but it is beta and focused on brazilian content. Here is my review:

• Very slow. A Social Network can’t be that slow. People just get bored and quit your site, as I did. Things must be easy and quick. That’s a point they’re probably tackling down right now, as they’re growing pretty fast and perhaps looking for funding to afford their infrastructure. As I said before: it is worth revisiting in a near future.
• Registering in a new book is got very confusing steps:
  • You go to the search bar, and type in the book you’re looking for
  • Search returns no results, then it is offered a link so you can add that book
  • The next page just says: You can’t add a book before making sure it isn’t already registered. And then, you have to conduct the same search once again. Did I mentioned how slow it was? Then I had to make two searches in order to add one book… This one got me really disappointed.
  • Then, you get to a page where you type in the basics of that book
  • Then, you get to another page where you’ll have the option to add further details
  • Then you get your book registered.
  • In none of these steps they try to auto-complete the fields based on what you were searching. Also, after typing in the title in the first page, you’ll have to type in the same title in the second one, while you should have it already filled in based on what you filled in the page before. The whole process is very slow, and I just couldn’t afford to register more than 2 or 3 books there. The harder it is to register a book, the less people will do it, the less books are going to be available in the network, the sooner the network will be dead. Usability is a big deal guys. Revisit these steps and make sure that they’re really easy, quick and smooth.
• One thing I liked on Skoob is that it offers you a lot of options when it comes to integrating with Twitter. You can select if you want Skoob to send out a tweet when you mark a book as reading, read, planning to read, abandoned, etc. This is really cool, and this sort of tweet increases the social network presence on the internet and allow people to more effectively share what they’re actually trying to share, which is the relation they have with a given book. If they didn’t want to spread out the word about it they wouldn’t be adding books to their online bookshelf neither would they have allowed the social network to integrate with Twitter.

Books Availability

Found The Book of Mormon in Portuguese, but couldn’t find in the other languages I’ve read it (English and French). Had to add them myself, and suffered severe usability issues while doing it. Couldn’t find the other english books mentioned also, though the 7 habits was already registered there.

Good Reads

This is the network I just tried right after Scoob. Here is my review:

• Good Reads have shown that they’ve made their homework when it comes to Web 2.0 and Social Networks. As soon as you add a book to your shelf, you start getting suggestions of related books that you may have read or that you may be interested in start reading. This made me spend a reasonable amount of time on the network, as I was always presented with a book I already read and just couldn’t stop adding them to my bookshelf. A social network must master content relashionship. It isn’t only about people anymore: you want to relate content, and that makes people linger and love your website.
• A minor detail, is that if you say that you’re reading a book, then you can tell in which page you currently are. Update: @heitordelima just told me that Skoob has this capability as well. Unfortunatelly, they’ve missed the point of making things easily reachable. Just couldn’t see this feature at first.
• A very good feature they have is Google Preview. While seeing a book profile, you can just get a book preview if it is available from Google. That’s wonderful if you’re trying to figure out if a book is worth reading. Avid book readers like me, sometimes spend hours trying to figure out if the book is worth a read (perhaps we should consume those hours reading them) by reading reviews of the book, table of contents, descriptions, commentaries, taking a look at a preview when it is available, etc. Book preview is a very nice feature, and make the network look really big and complete.
• Once again: Social Networking is a business of relationships. People just tend to believe that relationships are only about people. It isn’t. And that’s the point I think Good Reads performed really well. While browsing the network, they’ll just keep suggesting you to take a look at popular shelves, more books by the author and relate books by showing what other books people that read a book have also read. This is just the big catch. A real book reader would spend a big deal of time in this network just to get up with all of that. This is more than 70% of the network, I would say.

Books Availability

I simply didn’t have to add any book. Just found all of them (and many others I’ve read) very easily. Rework, for example, just poped up when I added Crush it! and that’s what I was expecting. I just felt that though I have a reasonable amount of books, I would find more than 80% of them already listed there.

Library Thing

This one looked very promising at first, as they state they are a community of “1 million book lovers”. Truth is, that they’ve a very poor business model, and the community looks dead. Here is my review:

• They offer two basic types of accounts: Organizational and Personal. It shows that they’re concerned about serving everyone’s needs, and that has a high potential if organizations begin to give a serious look at Library Thing and what a profile there can do for them. Having organizations interested in your social network means that soon you’re going to cash in somehow.
• It is got a horrible design. It is very hard to digest the screen and make a sense of what is being presented. Though I realized it was relating a lot of content, in the very web 2.0 and social networking way, I just couldn’t stand digesting it all. Too much data, bad color combinations and too many distractions. Design must be clear, and they’ve missed that point.
• Almost no book registered. Couldn’t find any of those. Although they’re 1 million, it looks like none of them like to contribute at all, or they aren’t actually active. I wonder if that 1 million refers to people that just signed in one day, or to people that are active in the social network…
• Twitter interaction is disabled. That’s really bad and the social network is loosing visibility because of that.
• Later I discovered that if you want to contribute (waste your time registering books in their network) with more than 200 books, you’ve got to pay a fee! I was stunned to learn that you would have to pay $10 for an yearly subscription or $25 for a life time. Hey guys! You’re trying to make money in the wrong place! You’re killing your business. Try to make money with affiliate networks or advertisements and instead of charging them for contributing, invite them and make things easier for them to contribute. This is the worst business model I’ve ever found for a social network.
• Zeitgeist is so ultra cool. Every social network should have a live stats like that. It gets people involved and courious about your network. The long you make people linger in your network, the more valuable it will be. If people spends more time in your network, it means it is worth it, and soon they’ll start to comment out. Zeitgeist is a huge thumbs up, and a thumbs down to all other social networks that are missing this point.

Books Availability

Couldn’t find crush it!, the 7 habits and neither The Book of Mormon. That made me feel like the community was dead and that no book could be found there. And as my real book shelf features hundreds of books, registering them there would certainly be a pain. It feels like only 10% of my books could be found there already registered.

Shelfari

This was the last one I tried, and has the most pleasent interface. A huge plus is that it is owned by Amazon, a worldwide book seller leader. Here is my review:

• Very pleasant and highly usable interface. The design is clean and thematic. Browsing is smooth, fast and easy. Just loved it.
• Search is always easily at reach whenever you are inside the network. That really helps when you just had remembered a book you would like to learn more about or perhaps add to your bookshelf.
• It is hard to evaluate right after adding the book. After adding it just gives you a box where you can say that it is a favorite, and that box will vanish within 2 or 3 seconds, so you’ve got to be quick! That’s a downside, really, as I like to always rank the books I’ve read.
• Very good shelf. It looks like a bookshelf, and gives people an overview of what you’ve being reading, what you read or what you’re planning to read.
• As one would expect, due to the fact they’re owned by Amazon, one of Shelfari’s strengths is Web 2.0 and Social Networking capabilities. Like Good Reads, Shelfari has done their homework and you would spend hours browsing the interface without actually realizing you’ve done so just because things are so well related that you can’t stop clicking through.

Books Availability

I can’t say this for sure, but it looks like all the books Amazon is got to sell are registered there. Just couldn’t find a book that wasn’t registered already. I would say that at least 90% of my bookshelf could be found there easily.

My Readers’ Social Network of choice is…

I chose Shelfari as it seems to already have the majority of books I own, and they have a really cool interface with serious web 2.0 and social networking features. It is owned by Amazon, the website is really fast and the community seems pretty active. I would go for Good Reads as well, but I think that Shelfari is got more books and that will make my life easier. Skoob is a no go for a while, and Library Thing is got a very long road ahead to became a Readers’ Social Network of choice for any avid book reader (not to mention that they’ve got to change their business model!)

This week I read an article from Erik J. Heels, where he states that patents are not always worth a try for startups, mainly when it comes to software patents.

Well, it happens that I have being reading about this subject lately, and sometimes I do agree, sometimes I don’t.

Although being expensive and time consuming, patents do give its owner a reasonable advantage over competitors avoiding them from stealing the idea. Ok, I agree that it doesn’t always avoid that. Sometimes, enforcing a software patent isn’t that easy, and if they steal your idea early, then they may gain a huge advantage over you before you even get you patent aproved.

It takes something between 5 to 6 years to get a software patent aproved. That’s just about the life time of most technologies!

If your technology is good enough to strive through and live longer than that, you probably managed to gain the biggest piece in the market share. Then, would you really need a software patent to enforce competitors?

It happens that there is no easy answer to this. It is very hard to predict the future, and patents are assets. If you’re more conservative, then patents will certainly bring you some peace of mind. If you’re the type that doesn’t fear competitors and trust in your bat, then patents may be a waste of time and money.

But never forget: patents are assets. Though you may never use it, whenever you need it you’ll have it.

And no, I’m not going to start working as an IP lawyer or consultant, in case you’re wondering I’m being biased. It simply happens that I have a special interest on this matter.

What do you think? Is it worth investing on patents, or is it better to use that money and time trying to overcome competition?

“The true definition or true defining situation for a person is what they do when they are alone and don’t have to do anything else” – Dell’s CEO Kevin Rollins

Isn’t it right? Have you ever noticed what do you do whenever you find yourself idle? Start thinking of it.

This book is based on interviews to prominent members of The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter Day Saints. Some of them are the CEOs of JetBlue Airways (former CEO and founder, actually), Dell Computers, Deloitte & Touche and Madison Square Garden. As their lifes are retreated and analysed, several principles and behaviors that have lead them to success are actually based on their religion, faith and family values.

It is certainly a must read for members and non-members of the church, as it clearly draws and clarify the benefits of living the principles of the gospel in everything we do, and knowing how to value our families and marital relationship.

One of the chapters explains what is the secret of success, and it clearly highlights the family as the most favorable factor. Some people keep thinking that getting married and having kids is a show stopper, but I keep saying that there is no such show stopper as avoiding them and the happiness they bring to life. The experience we get as familly leaders we can’t get anywhere else, and they certainly mold us for other challenges we face in life.

Last post I wondered a little bit about how could a company give enough freedom to their employees so they can create their creative environment and do a better job. After posting, I began pondering some starting points, or directives, which could help a company walk in that direction.

First, I would like to bold that in the creative process, there should be no deadlines or that will kill it from the root. But, I didn’t forget that in the real world, we need to interact with other companies and people with which we must sign contracts, and that they unfortunatelly have deadlines. What a paradox! Companies need money to survive. They get their money from their contracts. The contracts sets deadlines to the company’s works. The creative process that leads to a great product demands that deadlines should not exist. So, how could we tackle this issue and have at least a better approach?

As I said before, I tried to set some starting points or directives based on the kind of work I’m into, and wondering that it could be totally or partially applied to most other areas.

So, lets state now that inside the company there should be no deadlines. Deadlines are capital ofense, as John Cleese has stated.

Then, instead of setting a deadline, what about setting quality goals? Sometimes, with a tight deadline people tends to chose the “enough for the moment” approach on solving problems. Maybe, if we begin by setting quality goals, then we are virtully setting a deadline. How is that? With a reasonable quality goal, you can deliver a great project without the need of having people wondering of better possible solutions for ever. If you set a quality goal, people will try their best to reach that, with no deadline. But, to make then deliver on the deadline, you set an ambitious goal that you think can be archieved in the time frame you’ve got. But please, don’t do contracts with tight deadlines. If you do that, you’re shooting your foot anyway, and the whole theory for creativity process is not for you.

Then I wondered: That is not the solution by itself. Otherwise, it would be too easy, uh?
How to avoid the employee from getting stucked somewhere, and help him on his creative evolvement? Perhaps starting the quality goals definition by brainstorming the product and it’s requirements. Then, that could already leaverage some ideas that would inspire the employee and put him in a nice stand to begin his work and save some precious time.

But, that is just the beginning. During the project, the employee could get stucked in something we didn’t wondered in the beginning. At this moment, is where I think that two (or more) heads thinks better. Never found yourself deep in something, and got stucked lacking more ideas? What you need is fresh air, and fresh ideas. Perhaps just steping the next door and share the difficulties with the neighbor would help give the person that fresh air and ideas needed. Perhaps a coaching team could also come by and help by providing some more brainstorming, ideas… Perhaps the coaching team could find out that the person went the wrong way, and could put him back on track. Perhaps, a walk in the park or a nice sleep could help on that also. If we can’t set a deadline, then all we’ve got left is improving our capabilities, save time on the process and create a clean and free highway to creativity so it can come as better and quick as possible.

Another essencial thing to have a nice job done: information. If you’re willing to delive a good product, leave your employees absolutely aware of what you need, or what yor client needs. All the documentation, charts, goals descriptions, requirements, meetings, brainstorming, etc just looks like not enough when we want to get everyone perfectly aware of our needs and engaged on that goal. Here you must use your creativity to have the information delivered as expected to all people related to the product creation.

I know this is not enough to change a company culture, but perhaps this could make someone think and thus it would serve as a nice starting point

I went through the first morning of the event, and it was very inspiring. The speakers quality is very ok, and the event very well organized, but the catering service… Ok, we’re surviving that and in the end, we came here for brain not stomach food.

John Cleese mainly talked about ways of leting and insentivating your creativity come out from your unconscious. Not a surprise to most of us, interrupting the cognitive process can be a disaster as he said. I believe that, and always tried to find a calm and quiet place to let my ideas flow. But that is nice when we’re under control of the situation and we can manage to set a good slot of time in a peaceful place to let our neurones work as they like. But, how to produce such an environment inside a company? How to let your employee in charge of creating their creative environment in which they can feed their minds with what they need to come out with innovation? Is it good or is it bad for your company?

That is hard to say. A later speaker, author of the book My Company is a Jungle, claimed that culture is vital inside a company. If your company doesn’t have an inner culture, you’re going out of wings. Maybe, that could relate our former need: How to let our employees in charge of creating their perfect creative environment and not mess up with your company? Maybe, setting a culture could be the answer.

Yeah, that’s not something new or ground breaking. We hear all the time people saying about companies trying to set a creative culture, and you shouldn’t take more than 1 second to remind the name of a couple of them.

What are the other companies missing then? Is that fear which motivates then to keep thenselves in the age of iron when it comes to creating a culture inside a company? Is the fear caused because it is expensive to afford such a freedom to their employees?

We clearly see the benefits of providing time and a good environment for criativity, so why do we keep pushing and pressing people to keep in track of deadlines, and do more things in less time? We are so used to this culture, of pushing and pressing and delivering things in very tight deadlines, that we feel afraid of trying the disruptive aproach of not having a deadline and not pushing things arround.

So, from were I can see, things must change both internally and externally, and as Jef Staes said: it must start from the edge.