Kim, Martin and myself have been working on “the Book” project. Doing interviews, desktop research and hosting a very interesting insight workshop with our esteemed client’s management and chairman. It was our first workshop in the office and it worked out fine, although I believe we need to look more into a new printer so that all our flows, sketches, diagrams and analysis get an enhanced (and at least larger) presentation.

We have held some great conversations around the different perspectives on open innovation both internally and with clever people around us during the last couple of days. We have been invited to speak on the subject during the next couple of months both in Denmark and internationally so you will be able to read more about it in future blogposts, but here is a short version of our thoughts and experiences so far.

Open innovation initiatives in organizations can be seen as either “structured” or “emergent”. If they are “structured” the are based on the idea of “push” where participants are invited to help a given organization with input or ideas because they want to improve their own situation as customer or citizen, because they want recognition or because they can win a price. We have been part of branded innovation projects like these since 2006 and build numerous of them. We know how to make them work, both from a people, a process and a platform perspective – but we also know when this approach are less likely to give relevant new input and knowledge to the organization.
If the initiatives are more “emergent” the conversation are more based on the idea of “pull”, does not typically take place at on a company website branded for the purpose and peoples motivation to join in are more based on creating something new or relevant for themselves. It’s more a collective action than an collaboration and in this “emergent”, non-linear or process-driven conversation the participants are peers and contributors with all (or non) of them owning the ideas they share and develop together. This is a completely different approach to innovation which have greater potential and greater risk. It might be more rewarding in the end but is typically challenging the way business is done today.
We believe that both approaches are useful and valuable in their own, different way but as they demand very different organizational set-ups, competencies, tools and KPI’s they need to be handled in different ways.

We will continue to explore open innovation, how organizations of today can use these to develop new products, services and business models and what it takes from an organizational point of view in the coming months. Your ideas and comments on the subject is most welcome so pitch in here or send a mail if you share our interest.

On a completly different note: If you, like us, are interested in the lean start-up movement you should check out the Stanford course, the launchpad class

That’s that. Have a nice weekend.

We’ve been meeting with a lot of really interesting people and organisations this week. Martin have been away censoring at IT University on mobile and social IT related thesisses. We have been putting a next to final hand on our sparkling, new office. And thanks to (or despite of) TDC we finally got our own Internet connection up and running. Thanks to 23 for the lifeline support in the past weeks. If you end up in the heart of Nørrebro someday, don’t be shy to drop by Slotsgade 2, 3 tv.

The research for our collaboration with SAXO.com and interviews and concept development for our crowdfunding-focused Biennale project has taken much of especially Kim’s and some of my time this week. We learn a lot and that’s always good.
We have continued working on the social design of a new corporate platform for a large industrial company and continued our collaboration around a disruptive financial community platform with a stealth mode start-up. Quite different work, both rewarding in their own ways.

Yesterday, Rasmus and Inge-Mai moved in to work, collaborate and write their master thesis together with us. We are interested in “how the successful innovation principles of interactive value creation, distributed co-creation, and mass collaboration in the private sector may inspire the public sector to reform administration and development processes”. It’s going to be very exciting to see how the project evolves in the coming months.
This new research project will complement the research we did with Jacob last year around planning and implementation of crowdsourcing in complex organisations and we look forward to learn even more and build upon our existing expertise in regards to the more advanced methods and approaches for creating participation in complex markets and organisations.

This week we have been listening a lot to Kim Hiorthøy. It’s highly recommendable when you are in a productive mode.

Have a nice weekend.

Magnus

We have been talking about how complete industries, like the music industry and the news industry, are falling apart and being build again in complete different ways by some young entrepreneur. That it’s never been easier to build and try a new product, service or business and to modify it “in mid air”. Quoting Joi Ito again he writes that:

“(…) it is now usually cheaper to just try something than to sit around and try to figure out whether to try something. The map is now often more complex and often more expensive to create than to trying to figure it out as you go.”

Although, these things still needs repeating to most companies, the notion has been that these changes are mainly related to the web-based companies, software or digital products. These areas have been mostly related to communication or marketing, perhaps even to some “branding disguised as user-driven innovation” effort. It has not been related to the overall business strategy nor the growth or survival of the company as such.

I believe this will change very soon and that the traditional physical goods companies are up next. Not related to marketing or communication but related to their core business. In his post from earlier today, Joi Ito, is pointing to the emergence of community of hardware hackers and open hardware designs. He anticipates “an explosion of grass-roots innovation around hardware” and draws parallels to the early-Internet developers writing the open standards and open source software for the Internet.

Last week, Berg London, a rather small (atleast compared to your traditional hardware production/sales/distribution company of today) launched Berg Cloud and its first in a series of hardware products, a printer called Little Printer, that will connect with other products via the Internet.
A month ago, the small Berlin-based start-up Changers launched its company and hardware product which gives everybody a easy way to charge digital devices using sunlight and (eventually) obtain energy freedom.

Seems like the barriers of developing, manufacture and distributing physical goods are disappearing in the same way it have with digital products and services. We find this development interesting. We are doing some digital/physical stuff in the CBI project and in “the Farm” project as well and – as part of our research and work – we are talking to lots of really intelligent and hands-on people these days. As a consequence, these are not the first, nor the last words on the blog about how the Internet will change the industries of physical goods.

If you know of any examples or cases of projects/start-ups/products or if you have your own ideas/opinons on the subject, please share in the comment fields below.

It’s been to long since we last wrote but we hope we will change this in the future. One thing we would like to do more of (inspired by BERG) is to sum up our week in a weekly post. So that we remember what we’ve done when we look back at all of this and so that you know a bit more about what we’re up to. So here goes, the first of many…

For quite some time we have been researching and exploring how the internet disrupts business as we know it, and much of our time this week have been focused on this. Kim have been talking with Mads Tofte from ITU, I have been meeting with people from the CBI project on co-creation and collaborative business models, and we have discussed a new research focus for next year with some new collaborators.

Kim, Jonas and myself have been kicking of our Farm project. Kim and Jonas have been conducting interviews and research and I have been doing some planning and initial analysis on the challenges with the project together with our client, while Nicolaj have been working on prototypes for the coming workshops. Things looks good.

Martin have been traveling, doing presentations and talked to quite a few member organizations about the difficulties and relevance of “getting the internet into the organization” and adjusting to the fact that the organizations primary interface to its surroundings is digital. He has also been working hard to wrap up our latest open innovation project together with Dan and Emil. Emil have spent time with Nicolaj, working on some of our own stuff and we’re looking forward to show you some of this next week when we go live with our new blog.

Beside this, there have been quite a few new business meetings this week and some internal huddles on an event we are planning for the beginning of next year. An event that includes new offices (OMG). But more on this later.

For now, have a great weekend. I know I will.

Magnus

Nu har vi fundet ham og vi er derfor meget glade over at sige velkommen til Dan Larsen, som fra 1. april er udviklingschef med ansvar for kode og programmering i Socialsquare.

Dan har lang erfaring med at udvikle innovative websites, tjenester, applikationer og platforme, både som ansat i digitale bureauer og som iværksættere. Han er allerede godt igang med at hjælpe vores kunder med at skabe innovation, at konceptudvikle, designe, prototype og bygge nyskabende, sociale platforme og tjenester. Desuden kan Dan lide open source og robotter. Vi er glade for at have ham ombord – det var tiltrængt :-)

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Socialsquare søger en skarp og erfaren webudvikler, som vil få en central rolle i vores talentfulde team. Vi tilbyder en mulighed for at udvikle og dygtiggøre dig samtidig med, at du spiller en central rolle i at gøre et af Europas førende sociale bureauer på konsulentsiden til en stærk udviklerforretning også.

Vi er i Socialsquare er i gang med at definere en ny branche og et nyt slags bureau. Vi hjælper organisationer med at genopfinde sig selv gennem sociale værktøjer på tværs af platforme, mennesker og processer. Vi har store ambitioner og er i hastig vækst og arbejder for kunder som VELUX, Rambøll, DBU, Novo Nordisk, Danske Bank, Københavns Kommune, Danske Regioner, Skanderborg Kommune, Microsoft, Arla etc.

I Socialsquare tror vi på, at social teknologi er mere end blot nye kommunikationskanaler. Udviklingen og forandringerne i disse år handler om, at den sociale teknologi grundlæggende forandrer vores måde at organisere os på og stiller helt nye krav til, hvordan vi tænker organisationer, forretning, marketing, HR, organisationsstruktur, innovation, ledelse og relationer til interessenter og kunder. Vi hjælper vores kunder med dette og arbejder metodisk, design- og research-drevet med fokus på at løse udfordringer og udvikle innovative løsninger, der skaber ny værdi for de organisationer, vi arbejder med. Vi har en forkærlighed for åbne systemer udviklet i agile processer, og vi ønsker at eksperimentere og forsøger altid at tænke teknologi ind tidligt i et forløb.

Din profil
Du har en tung og bred teknisk viden, og du har stor erfaring udi adskillige sprog og frameworks. har stærk fornemmelse for design, interaktionsdesign og kan arbejde med wireframing som en del af kommunikation mellem andre i teamet.
Du er ikke bange for at kaste dig ud i agile processer, hvor du også er med til at skabe idéer, frem for bare at implementere andres. Du er stærkt interesseret i at bygge sociale websites, platforme og mobile apps.
Du kan ikke holde dig fra at lave mashups og prototyper og følger aktivt med i, hvad der foregår på tech startup scenen.
Du er god til informationsarkitektur, front- og backend, database, deployment til server, Facebook-applikationer /Facebook-connect og kodning op mod andre sociale API’er.
Du kan nok også arbejde med mobile OS.

Du kan strukturere, lede og fordele arbejdet i større udviklingsprocesser, hvor du styrer og løfter niveauet for både interne og eksterne udviklere. Du er sikkert ikke Scrum-religiøs, men du kan se værdien af korte og involverende udviklingssprint. Det kan vi i hvert fald.

Din uddannelse er mindre vigtig. Vores team har uddannelser fra 9. klasse til Ph.d. i sociale medier, men alle har flere års professionel erfaring. Vi forventer dog, at du kan dokumentere 2-3 års erfaring og en portefolio, der viser dit arbejde med udvikling af sociale løsninger.

Du kommer til dagligt til at arbejde i et team af konsulenter og eksperter i social design, som sammen med kunder og brugere skaber de helt rigtige løsningen fra 0 til 100 på kort tid. Du er naturligt udadvendt, du er god til at kommunikere din faglighed til kunder og kan deltage i processen fra start til slut. Den ideelle ansøger har brede kvalifikationer, en prototypende approach, en glødende interesse for det sociale internet og har sandsynligvis bygget egne projekter, eksperimenter og løsninger.

Stillingen er fuld tid og med tiltrædelse snarest muligt.

Læs mere om os her på sitet eller ping os på Facebook eller Twitter.

Send os CV og ansøgning
Send din ansøgning inden 31. marts kl. 12.00 til magnus@socialsquare.dk. Vedlæg CV eller link til LinkedIn-profil samt eventuelle referencer. Vi Googler dig selvfølgelig, ligesom du sikkert har Googlet os.

For at ikke kun tale om tingene bruger vi dagen på at udforske intranettets muligheder og udfordringer i praktiken. Med hjælp af deltagernes forslag, input og spørgsmål vil vi lave en prototype af hvordan det sociale intranet bør se ud og virke, hvis det skal bidrage med værdi til virksomheden og dets ansatte.

Vi glæder os rigtigt meget til en både visionær og praktisk dag. Hvis du har lyst til at deltage så gå her og tilmeld dig.

Jeg håber vi ses,

Magnus

At være tidligt ude, drive en ny branche fremad og definere et nyt fagligt felt, har været både lærerigt og hårdt. Vi har måttet erkende, at vi de sidste års tid har haft svært ved at tage skridtet videre og indfri vores potentiale. Samtidig har det marked, vi har været med til at skabe, modnet sig, og det kræver en ny tilgang og et nyt, fokuseret Socialsquare. Vi tager nu skridtet videre.

Efter 5 år har vi derfor valgt at foretage en række strategiske ændringer i Socialsquare for at få tingene til at ske.

1. Vi vil gøre – ikke kun evangelisere.
Tiden er klar til at eksekvere, ikke kun diskutere og planlægge. Vi vil være mere eksekverende i forhold til de strategier og visioner, vi laver med vores kunder. Vi vil fokusere på at dyrke den ekspertise, vi besidder i forhold til at konceptudvikle, designe, prototype og bygge sociale platforme for organisationer og mennesker.

2. Vi tror på, at vi kan gøre alt socialt.
Det sociale er ikke bare en ny kanal til markedsføring, og det er ikke kun endnu et medie for kommunikation. Vi tror på, at vi kan møde organisationers udfordringer på smartere, mere radikale og mere effektive måder ved at gøre det socialt.

3. Vi vil være det sociale bureau.
Vi ønsker en ny måde at gøre tingene på. Vi vil skabe en bureaumodel, som ikke består af enkeltstående konsulenter, men hvor vi i kompetente teams arbejder sammen med vores kunder, hvor vi arbejder mere metodisk, design- og research-drevet med fokus på at løse problemer og skabe innovative løsninger og mere værdi.

4. Vi vil skabe en ny forretning, selvom vi er 5 år gamle.
Socialsquare er på den ene side en moden virksomhed. Få matcher vores referencer og erfaringer. Men måske er vi blevet lidt ufarlige og satte – vi siger selv, at vi har genstartet Socialsquare. Vi ønsker at skabe et nyt ståsted, mere vækst, vi ønsker at blive flere, tiltrække talenter, indgå i samarbejder og nye partnerskaber.

For at muliggøre denne forandring indtræder Martin Sønderlev Christensen og Magnus Christensson som medejere af Socialsquare. Magnus tiltræder samtidig som administrerende direktør. Begge har de seneste år været Socialsquares markante makkerpar i forhold til eksekvering og levering af projekter og har tegnet virksomhedens faglige og metodiske tilgang både internt og overfor kunder.

Thomas Madsen-Mygdal, medstifter af Socialsquare, fortsætter som bestyrelsesformand og medejer.

Samtidig fratræder Socialsquares stifter Trine-Maria Kristensen som konsulent og partner i Socialsquare.

Vi ønsker Trine-Maria al held og lykke i fremtiden og siger tusind tak for 5 års kæmpe indsats for at gøre Danmark og danske virksomheder mere sociale. Trine-Maria er en fantastisk formidler som brænder for det, hun gør som ingen andre. Vi er sikre på, at hun, som en af Danmarks skarpeste profiler i forhold til kommunikation og PR på nettet, ikke kommer til at kede sig eller os andre. Vi er alle i Socialsquare beærede og berigede af at have været med til at skabe Socialsquare sammen med Trine-Maria. Vi siger farvel med tryg forvisning om at se mere til hende i fremtiden – på blogs, i medierne, på konferencer og hvem ved… måske læser vi snart en bog af hende.

Socialsquare vil om kort tid invitere til 5 års fødselsdag og lancering af det sociale bureau, hvor vi vil fortælle mere om, hvordan vi gør organisationer sociale og hvilken værdi, det skaber.

Mvh.

Magnus, Martin, Thomas

In McKinsey Quarterly recent review on “how to make Web 2.0 work” based research from the last 2 years in at least 50 corporations, they end up suggesting six critical factors. Although I can conclude much of the same from our own work – the factors are quite generic and thus hard to disagree with – the most interesting note comes in the end of the paper where the authors suggest that “encouraging participation calls for new approaches that break with the methods used to deploy IT in the past“. I could not agree more.

As social computing and participatory tools are viewed – and handled – as traditional IT (although their claim for fame comes from the web) the momentum of these initiatives are at risk of fading away before we even get started. The idea of viewing these tools as what they are – web based – is not new, nor is the fact that most organisations have IT procedures, rules and regulation for (sometimes) good reasons. Not only does IT (in this case) manifest the bureaucracy of post-modern organisations, it also poses an economic threat to these participatory ambitions – IT is (as we all know) expensive and it takes guts to “go all in” on something as vague as what some call “social media”.

So, how can we balance this act between sheer conviction and belief in these social tools and the need to live up to technical standards and business cases? I guess there’s many answers to that one, but I think the idea of prototyping would make for a good start (Thanks, Andreas, on a great and inspiring conversation on the subject the other day).

When we want to see what a given participatory tool can do for our organisation – why don’t we start with an “organisational prototype” where we can try out working with or through a given tool but also test the benefits/challenges for the organisation. We could deploy a beta version of some technically flexible kind, invite a group of real people and ask them to use it in their work (their real work that is) for a couple of months, developing and tweaking the tool together with them as we go along. Then after a couple of hands-on months we would evaluate the tool in terms of technical feasibility (or “how should it work if we were to build a “real” one”), business viability (or “what was the value created from using the tool”) and human sociability (or “did we like using it or not”).

Such an approach could get the organisation going faster, giving them the opportunity to make real experiences using a tool or trying out a “phenomena” (social network analysis anyone?). But most importantly, it would give them real data to inform their decisions, make the organisation better to specify their specific needs to an eventual vendor and make their large investments in participatory tools less risky.

In the coming weeks and months, I will be using some time on the idea of building “organisational prototypes”, how the process could look like and how it could be efficiently measured, so if you share my interest, and would like to pitch in, hear more about it or disagree, please let me know.