On October 14, 2008, in Seoul, Korea, the Open Web Asia 2008 conference will gather web industry leaders from across Asia, as well as the US and Europe. The day long event focuses on the theme of “The Social Web.” Speakers include Shusaku Maruko (General Manager, Corporate Strategy Department, FeliCa Networks,) Jean Min (Communications Director, Ohmynews,) Loic Le Meur (Founder and CEO, Seesmic.com,) Arthur Chang (VP of Sale, Alibab.com,) and Jason Calacanis (CEO Mahalo.) As well, Korean tech blogger, writer, and CScout consultant, Taewoo Danny Kim, will also speak.

The combination of executives, entrepreneurs, and venture capitalists is going to explore how social media is evolving on the international, regional, and country stage. The event is the first pan-Asian web technology industry conference of its kind.

A combination of factors underpins rapid growth in the Chinese mobile commerce sector.

Trend Description

China is rapidly emerging as the global capital of m-commerce applications, driven by an increasingly high-tech digital environment, the world’s largest mobile phone subscriber base (nearly 600 million), and the recent launch of the country’s own 3G standard (TD-SCDMA).

Although China currently lacks the advanced mobile applications of Europe, North America, Japan and Korea, many cellular players are now launching sophisticated mobile applications, and analysts predict the country may leapfrog more traditional m-commerce markets in the near future.

Penetration of new markets, including retail, ticket purchases and person-to-person transactions, is predicted to result in increasingly high volumes of small payments to Chinese m-commerce service providers. Because this type of transaction costs businesses far less than retail or other forms of transaction, the demand for m-commerce solutions is expected to grow and result in tremendous opportunities for these SPs.

Cases

UFIDA’s hapigo

The “hapigo” platform developed by UFIDA Mobile is China’s first large-scale, multi-functional m-commerce platform. With a strong focus on mobile internet technology, hapigo provides retailers and consumers with an efficient and effective  one-stop m-commerce shop. Last year hapigo became “the first brand of mobile e-commerce in China”, serving 200,000 retailers over 1 million mobile consumers.

UFIDA Mobile is a recently created US$13.42 million joint venture between the Beijing-based Ufida Software Company and Japan-based wireless heavyweight NTT DoCoMo.

Taobao’s WAP Site

Alibaba’s Taobao, the Chinese version of eBay, has recently launched a WAP version of the site at wap.taobao.com., in an effort to expand its reach to China’s huge mobile phone subscriber base, many of whom do not have net access of their own.

More interesting still is the way in which the site is served by a mobile interface for Alipay. Payment for most m-commerce in China so far has been processed by mobile service providers as part of the consumers’ bill. Although China Mobile may not be too happy with Alibaba’s move to cut them out of the loop with its “m-Alipay” service, its hard to imagine they can stop it in the long term.

Trend Impact

While the future for m-commerce in China looks rosy, there are still many obstacles to overcome. China is still largely a cash-based economy, with m-payment support structures only recently being developed. The rate of mobile phone uptake is also very  biased toward urban areas, especially when it comes to smartphones / PDAs.

Since voice is still the dominant application, decades-old mobile technologies are still some of the most profitable, and many mobile operators will need to upgrade large parts of their networks to the 2.5G and 3G technologies needed for most m-commerce applications. Still, with m-commerce proving increasingly popular and profitable, the financial incentives will surely continue to drive investment in both infrastructure and applications.

Find the original blog at CScout China blog.

Consumer packaged goods makers enhance product designs with practical twists.

Always on the lookout for new ways to interest customers, packaging designers have found ways to enhance the pack’s contents, by using it to chill or make its contents more flavorful. No longer competing on aesthetics along, the new designs give customers a practical reason to opt for the packaging.

Cases

Fruit Stickles

Trying to help customers find new ways of getting their five a day in a less monotonous way, Fruit Stickles are skewers infused with a cinnamon or tropical flavor. The company has refrained from adding sugar to its recipe to attract a health-conscious customer base.

Robero Cavalli for Coca Cola Light

Enhancing its contents in a fashion sense rather than a functional one, these limited edition Roberto Cavalli designs have been commissioned by Coca Cola Light (Diet Coke). 100,000 bottles of each animal print will be released, bringing a sense of exclusivity, fashion and collectability to a readily available commodity.

Burn Energy Drink

Coke’s Burn Energy Drink, currently available in Europe, offers a can with a unique re-sealable top. A plastic cover can be twisted into place, with a design that is based upon the packaging of salt and other spices. With new energy drinks being constantly introduced, Coca Cola is adding special packing features to separate themselves from competitors.

Kyo No Matcha
With “fresh” and “local” being key words for food products these days, manufacturers of pre-packaged items are seeking ways to change the image of their traditionally less than healthy goods. While bottled green tea might be one of the already acceptable convenience store products, CIC Co. goes the extra mile with its Kyo no Matcha. With a twist of the air-tight cap, 1.4 grams of traditional Kyoto matcha (high-grade green tea) is released into the mineral water below, creating a serving of fresh (yet instant) tea with no added chemicals or preservatives. At ¥5,280 ($52) for a case of 24, Kyo no Matcha is nearly twice the price of regular bottled teas, but certainly within the acceptable range for products billed as healthy and natural.

Trend Impact
These products may not revolutionize the food industry, but they could inspire new approaches to packaging, putting the customer in control of the final stage of preparation before the product is consumed. It’s also possible this trend could inspire food wraps infused with certain flavors or cling film that absorbs certain unpleasant odors or bacteria.

New houses in Sweden are primarily built on slabs, partly because its expedient, but also because its naturally the best way to have in floor radiant heating. In a cold climate this is the only way to use a slab otherwise your slab will feel cold and uncomfortable. But a slab in a cold climate must be insulated from the elements or it will throw heat out its edges. There are typically two strategies to isolate your slab from the cold.

Technorati Tags: modern design, modern house, prefab house

As the summer vacation period is starting soon I’d thought I celebrate and share the 5th anniversary of this blog a little bit earlier than scheduled with you. If you have a closer look at the ‘Full Archive’ section of this blog you will notice that e very first posting is dated 29. July 2003! Wow ;-)

After all in the very first posting (still written in small caption only; huhu fancy ;-) I’ll give credit to Lawrence Lee (back in 1997) who inspired me to do a regular publishing service on the web for the Design Management community as well.

However if I carefully remember how it all started I must admit that it has been more or less a technical coincidence that ‘Vol. 2: design-management.de‘ emerged: I’ve simply played around the other day with a piece of software called ‘Movable Type‘ and after a long night’s playing I succeeded to have this software installed on my hosted webserver. And most important: It worked ‘Hello World‘ :-)

From there the whole thing slowly developed into a tool for making my life as a teacher & lecturer for Design Management far easier. And still today many people ask me what to read or surf and ever since it simply takes a URL to point them to this blog and hopefully address their question in one or the other posting.

For sure the blog also emerged into a means to brand myself and raise my voice in the mist. What I’ve also learned however was that the often advertised ‘conversation‘ for most of us bloggers is a sort of ‘myth’ ;-( the blogosphere is not too different from the rest of the web and people on the web (as in real life) rather like to ‘lurk‘ than to ‘invest’ in a conversation. However please do not misunderstand this as a negative criticism, on the contrary: It’s not! It is simply helpful to keep this fact in mind in times of demotivation when you wish someone would clap on your shoulder and tell you how brilliant your postings are ;-) So yes, blogging also taught me to remain humble and appreciate & respect the fact that people are visiting this blog and spend their precious time on reading my musings.

So some of you might be interested in who else and how many are visiting this blog. Well that’s hard to measure for several reasons. While the web provider statistics report visitor numbers between 35.000 - 40.000 per month (personally I love that number ;-) Google Analytics reports some 100+ quality visitors per day on average (which is still fine for a niche topic I think). Visitors tend to come from across the globe and I think Tibet or Nepal belong to the very few countries that haven’t been logged yet ;-) The majority comes from the US as well as Western Europe, but this varies also depending on the country/institution where I’ve lectured last ;-) After all an interesting side note is the fact that more visitors come from Asia (China, India, and South Korea at the lead) as well as the Far East like Saudi Arabia for example!

So the fact that visitor numbers increased from 10/month in July 2003 to more than 10×10 per day is a good motivation to continue. However one of the key moments that made me think was at a DMI conference back in 2006. While sitting at lunch with a bunch of Design Management professionals both from academia and practice one commonly acknowledged ‘authority’ (at least by the grey hair community mostly in the academic domain) asked me: “Why do you waste your time writing for free on this blog?”. My spontaneous reply has been: “Do I also ask you: ‘Why do you waste your time writing Books?’” Needless to say that the quality of our relation ever since has decreased slightly ;-) After all I’ve learned to live with that.

Let me close this posting with a short anecdote that is linked to the picture above: For the recent inauguration in The Hague the panel members have been kindly offered the opportunity to display any book or paper they have written on a table in the reception hall. Since most of my writing on Design Management has taken place on the web (blog postings as well as guest comments on other blogs) and not on paper I’ve had a hard time to raise attention in the concert of publications on the table. Therefore my (graphic design) wife has been so kind to make a display for me that triggers visitor’s attention and points to this blog (have you noticed the ‘laurel wreath’ she has made ;-). While I can’t prove a correlation I can confirm that visitor numbers have increased slightly for the last couple of weeks ;-)

So, thanks for accompanying me over the last 5 years and I hope you hang out with me virtually or physically from time to time! Feel free to spread the information that there is a blog out there on Design Management and drop me a note whenever you like to: blog (at) design-management.de. Thanks!

While I’m at it (see my previous posting on my recent activities) I’d thought you might also be interested in a recent conversation on the use of social media in European and US corporations (MP3 file ~ 48MB) I’ve had with Tom Guarriello from the “True Talk Blog” (iTunes here).

I’m following Tom’s blog for more than a year now and I’m intrigued by the breadth, but at the same time depth of his postings ranging from Politics, Business over Design & Fashion, to Social Media.

However what fascinates me most is his playful yet still professional use of social media like audio and video sharing. accordingly Tom is creating regular video and audio podcasts on various topics on a regular basis.

On Monday this week we’ve been able to realise a long planned podcast on ‘Social Media in European and US Companies’ based on our practical and theoretical expertise. And as hoped and expected it has been fun and inspirational.

As a side effect again I’ve recognised that listening to your own musings after the recording has been done is a ‘Point of Truth (POT) experience. From this particular recording and on a meta level I’ve learned that I can still improve the scope I usually frame my thoughts in. As a non native speaker (& writer) I always want to make sure that my ideas reach the audience in the right (not to say ‘perfect’) way ;-) Unfortunately this sometimes goes to the disadvantage of coming to the point in a concise fashion say ‘delayed’. So some way to go ;-)

Anyway while (for sure ;-) we did not fully answer the question why in particular organisations with strong brands and fashion brands in particular have difficulties to articulate themselves on the web beyond their brand image we’ve identified several strategic areas that are worth digging deeper into.

After all what surprised me indeed has been Tom’s feedback that US companies are far less ahead of using the social web compared to European companies as I’ve imagined. A question that popped up and that attracted my attention as well has been: How much do Social Technologies affect the corporate as well as brand culture once an organisation has ‘dared’ to enter this field of communication? Any insights from you readers are more than welcome!

In any case have fun listening to our conversation and drop me a comment or email on what you’ve thought while listening :-)

From regular checking the logfiles of this blog I know that quite a few visitors come from The Netherlands.

So, as some sort of semi-shameless self promotion your might want to notice that I will be moderating a panel with Design Management experts from Europe at INHOLLAND University, The Hague, NL tomorrow.

The panel discussion is embedded in the inauguration ceremony of Brigitte Wolf who will be officially assigned the role of formally heading the Centre for Applied Research in Brand, Reputation and Design Management (CBRD) placed within INHOLLAND University.

Beside the fact that I always love to travel to the NL I’m also looking forward to meeting some friends and colleagues both on the panel as well as among the guests. So on the panel amongst others are Kathryn Best author of the most recent book on Design Management and Jos van der Zwaal a long term friend back from the days when we’ve co-developed the first European continental Master in Design Management at INHOLLAND.

For sure my business colleagues Erik Roscam Abbing & Christa van Gessel from ZilverInnovation will also attend as guests. Hopefully Joris Funcke will also be there as well as Jaap van der Grinten. I haven’t met both of them for some perceived ages ;-).

For closer information click on the thumbnail picture in the top left corner above. In case you’re from the NL and would like to attend still try to contact INHOLLAND. Chances are that they will kindly grant access.

Thermoplan systems use Ziegel blocks with a thin bed of mortar, to provide a breathing wall construction system. When combined with woodfibre board they can form a thermally and acoustically high performance shell. The Ziegel blocks come as part of a full load-bearing external and internal wall masonry system, and combine high thermal performance with robustness, speed of build and a breathing wall design.

Because of all the trapped air and the thickness of the walls, these blocks provide reasonable insulation, while at the same time do provide some degree of interior thermal mass for maintaining constant interior temperatures. This is an unusual combination of these two factors in a single wall system.

Strawboard panels have a solid core of compressed wheat or rice straw. High pressure and temperatures forces the straw to release a natural resin that binds the fibers together. The compressed panels are then covered with either paper liners or OSB that is adhered to both sides with water based non-toxic glue. The standard panel measures 4 feet by 8 feet by 2-1/4 inches to 8 inches, weighing from 140 lbs. to 440 lbs. each. Custom panel sizes are available ranging from 3 feet to 12 feet long.

The panel's high density and low oxygen content does not support combustion. Since the panels do not contain added resins, alcohol, or other chemicals, no flammable vapors are produced. The panels have an R-value of between 3 and 25, depending on the composition and thickness. For permanent protection against insects and fungal decay and additional fire resistance, the boron compound polybor can be factory added to the core.

The product's workability is similar to wood as it can be sawn, drilled, routed, nailed, screwed, and glued. Lightweight wall attachments such as shelf brackets, picture frames, mirrors, and towel bars can be attached directly to the panel.

Since straw is a renewable by-product of wheat and rice production that becomes available annually, it takes less acreage (by about half) to build an equivalent house than with standard lumber, and which would then potentially preserve that forest for ecological habitat and CO2 sequestration.

See www.stramit-int.com/ for panels available in Europe and www.agriboard.com for panels available in the U.S.