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Interview

DIRK BARANEK: “IT HAS TO WORK AND BE USABLE. ULTIMATELY, THE USERS DECIDE WHETHER IT’S GOING TO BE A BIG THING.”

Oliver Gassner_January 12, 2012_10:01 AM_No Comment

In a digital conversation with Oliver Gassner, Dirk Baranek tells us how he feels about data collection on the web, what he likes about Google+, why he would even pay for Twitter, and what many startups do better in terms of PR than established companies.

Oliver Gassner: Hello Dirk, would you please introduce yourself to our readers?

Dirk Baranek: I’ve been working on the web since 1997 as an online editor for publishing houses, as a concept developer for web agencies, a PR guy, and as a traditional local reporter for the Stuttgarter Zeitung. I’ve been a freelance online journalist (DJV) since 2005. Currently, I mainly help companies realize their communication on the web operationally – for example, as an editor of the LG blog, promoter for restaurant reviews, and online communicator for the Baden-Württemberg Social Democratic Party and EnBW AG.

OG: You write a lot about new apps on iPads and other innovative things. In your opinion, what is the biggest mistake that startups make in their PR?

DB: I think startups do a lot of things right that established companies get wrong. For example, they usually have blogs that report on the development of their products. I don’t know of any established company that really does that. Startups certainly can learn from traditional PR, though – especially with regard to form, and the understanding of what qualifies as a “news item”.

OG: Well, I got an email today from a startup, asking me whether I wouldn’t be interested in writing about their innovative platform on my “webblog” (sic) – only you can’t test it yet.

DB: Yeah, that’s stupid, of course. It sounds more like they’re fishing for links.

OG: Yeah.
Aside from your customers, which major company or startup has the best PR in the social web in your opinion?

DB: If I ask myself who I know – from a private perspective – I think Daimler does a lot of things really well. They are actually always present. Startups – well, Amen is not bad. The hype was huge, even though they didn’t really do anything.

OG: Personally, I don’t use Amen or get invitations to it, and I otherwise hardly ever read anything about it in blogs. With regard to Daimler: I thought the Zetzsche video for the launch of the Daimler G+ page was really cool. It may have been somewhat scripted had a lot of pitching, but it looked like it was shot from the hip, with background noise. But that’s totally wrong for such a quality-oriented company, isn’t it?

DB: On the topic of quality, for videos to work on the web, they need to be authentic. Nobody wants to watch polished agency stuff, unless it’s a really good gag, or elaborate or innovative. Users want to see real people on the web. They sometimes trip over their own tongues or hesitate, or the camera is a bit shaky, etc.

OG: The Daimler thing couldn’t have been realized that quickly through an agency. So, it’s quick and dirty or not at all. I think it’s probably the same for both of us: we come across new things on the web every day and ask ourselves, is that the new Twitter, or even the new Facebook? How can you tell that there’s more to a startup?

DB: In my opinion, you can’t. It has to work and be usable. Ultimately, the users decide whether it’s going to be a big thing. In the end, it’s a matter of mass: if nobody goes there, it fails. That’s why it’s extremely important at the beginning to address the right people personally.

OG: I also think it’s important that founders get to know their audiences. So, you can’t tell that something is going to be a success until it’s a success?

DB: I can’t think of any criteria otherwise. It’s all very random, arbitrary, and unpredictable. Maybe it should be shareable, but then which platform isn’t?

OG: Which new “thing” changed your mobile or web habits the most over the past 12 months?

DB: Well, I’ve added G+. I’m fairly active there, using it as a private blog for lack of another. Otherwise, there wasn’t really anything. Everything else is already older.

OG: And Twitter is what you use most, isn’t it?

DB: Yes, Twitter is still fantastic. I’m also on FB a lot, admittedly mostly for customers.

OG: What’s your take on what Twitter has been doing recently? I have the impression that now that Facebook has stolen all of Twitter’s good ideas, Twitter is “Facebookizing” itself.

DB: What exactly do you mean?

OG: The notifications tab, the fact that retweets are in my stream, the fact that anyone with a credit card can now book sponsored tweets.

DB: I always run the Twitter client and don’t see much of what they’re doing in the web application. Sure, they need to make money too, and I don’t have a problem with that. When such services are free, you can’t expect them to also be free of advertising. I would pay for Twitter, though. €5.00 per month – that would be ok. I also pay for Flickr, after all.

OG: If you were on the jury of a startup contest, what would you look for in a company to put it at the top of your list?

DB: Is it clear what the company is about? Do they avoid collecting data? Are the graphics a thing of beauty? Do they have a clever idea? Does the idea have the potential to earn money? (Anyone can burn through money…)

OG: Can web apps work at all without collecting data?

DB: That’s just what I mean: if a service works only when data is collected and sold – I assume anonymously, of course, but nevertheless – then I consider it flawed. The service should be designed so that users would pay for a perceived added value.

OG: I don’t know about you, but if I chose the paid option for every service I subscribe to, I’d probably be broke. Not everyone can last five years without cash flow, like Twitter. Is there such a thing as the ideal financing model for startups?

DB: I don’t see an ideal model. In my opinion, there are only two feasible ones: advertising and premium services.

OG: And people only click on ads if they’re targeted, and to target them, you have to collect data ;) – it’s a vicious circle.
The prize for winning the CODE_n Global Innovation Contest is the opportunity to exhibit at CeBIT in a special CODE_n hall. If one of the winners were to book you as a PR expert, what would you do to generate buzz and ensure that journalists storm their booth?

DB: Depends on the topic, to be honest. At any rate, it’s essential to get things out of the digital space and into reality. In this era of electronic communication, real paper mail has taken on a completely different impact. Something could be done with that, I think. And the trick would be in getting it to refer back to the digital domain.

OG: How about dressing everyone up as Men in Black, Jedi, or storm troopers? Just a couple of ideas off the top of my head ;)

DB: Depends on how it fits to the product. It would be OK for games, but probably not for business networking ;)

OG: Oh, so like “Use the Force, Luke. Business Network ABC.” Actually, I have the impression that postal marketing would only work on handmade paper. Anything else goes straight into my bin. Do you open advertising mail?

DB: It depends. Personal letters, yes. And wooden crates, definitely! (I recently received one from a major manufacturer of alcoholic beverages.)

OG: And finally, a question about your personal preferences: iOS or Android, Google+ or Facebook? (In other words, not what you need to use because of your customers, but what feels cooler or objectively has a brighter future.)

DB: iOS and G+ for me personally. For customers: both systems and FB. Android is too frayed for my tastes and doesn’t fit to my hardware.

OG: When will G+ match or overtake FB in marketing?

DB: Hm, could be that it will never happen. G+ has an influence on Google Search, however. That will make it interesting for many companies. In doing so, Google has to be careful not to give up its neutrality.

OG: Thanks for the interview ;)

DB: OK, you’re welcome.

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Interview

OSSI URCHS: “IN THE CASE OF GOOGLE, IT ALSO TOOK A FEW YEARS BEFORE THE BUSINESS MODEL IT SHAPED WAS TRULY UNDERSTOOD.”

Oliver Gassner_December 20, 2011_10:06 AM_No Comment

The “Godfather of the Internet”, Ossi Urchs, spoke to us about the post-Facebook era, the end of Europe’s innovation-skeptic “citadel culture”, and why he believes that services like Foursquare are only just getting started.

Oliver Gassner: Hello Ossi, would you please introduce yourself to our readers?

Ossi Urchs: Ossi Urchs, Internet consultant since 1994, now with a focus on social media and mobile Internet.

OG: Recently you’ve blogged a few impressions of yourself as a young man, and it was apparent that your roots are in TV. How do you see the topic of TV these days?

OU: Fairly indifferently. When I discovered the web for myself in the early 90s, TV suddenly struck me as so old-school – a typical one-way medium – and I decided to focus my future work on the web, the new medium.

OG: Which web application, website or mobile app has influenced or changed your life the most in the past twelve months?

OU: That’s quite a question. Initially – before the web – it was e-mail. Then the web itself, then Google, Skype, Facebook, and the other “social” media on the web, especially YouTube. And that’s just the start. I’m convinced that the best is yet to come. If I take some time to think about it, I’m sure more examples will occur to me…

OG: And in the past twelve months? Was there a new Twitter? G+ is the Twitter/Facebook killer?

OU: I see G+ as one more step in the convergence of social media on the web with the social reality of everyday life. In a word: promising. But since it’s less a technological achievement than a change in communication culture, others can integrate such advances rapidly, and that goes a long way toward putting the advantage of G+ back into perspective.

OG: Don’t you think that Facebook’s changes tend to clutter the screen and irritate users? That’s how I see it, in any case.

OU: Not really. I love the new lists and the differentiated streams in which I’ve organized my “friends”. The design of user interface isn’t going to appeal to everyone (as with most American offerings). But that’s actually how it always goes: at first, users don’t like the new features at all, but everyone gets used to them quickly and no one says anything.

OG: How does a good idea differ from a true innovation?

OU: Its practical implementation and broad use.

OG: Can there be innovation without someone making money off of it? Or does one go hand-in-hand with the other?

OU: Unfortunately, it’s often the case that the real innovators earn the least from their work – at least in this country. The situation is quite different in the United States.

OG: Why is it that most internationally successful web and mobile applications currently come from the U.S. – and very few from Europe?

OU: Lol. Precisely because the United States has a culture of innovation, which is not surprising in a  country with a history of pioneering. By contrast, innovation is mostly seen as a threat to the established order in the “Fortress Europe”.

OG: Schumpeter explained that innovation always destroys something – and Europe apparently has not gotten used to that. So Germany is hostile to innovation – that’s something I’ve been hearing frequently in the last few weeks. How can we overcome that?

OU: Schumpeter never really gained traction here with his idea of ​​”creative destruction”. And that has its reasons – those just mentioned, and some that go further. I think that the “citadel culture” in Europe and Germany in particular will, or must, change as globalization progresses. If not, globalization will descend upon us like a storm…

OG: How will the mobility of the future differ from ours today?

OU: Essentially, in the degree of virtualization. While our mobility today is still largely physical, we will be relying on digital communication to a much greater degree in future.

OG: Have you forecast any developments in the past that then occurred just the way you predicted them?

OU: I think so. Back in the 90s, I was already arguing that the Internet was going to change the entire way we live, work, learn, and entertain ourselves from the ground up. And I think that’s exactly what has happened.

OG: Would you care to predict what the net’s next big thing will be?

OU: The combination of social media and mobility. Not only is it going to once again fundamentally change the way we live and work, it will also lead to a kind of convergence of the physical and digital world that we can only begin to anticipate and understand.

OG: Are you thinking of a particular service? Foursquare hasn’t really taken off yet, nor has Latitude.

OU: That’s because like their customers, they themselves have not yet understood the actual underlying business model: the wealth of combinatorics that arise between information and sales, between online and offline business, if you like. But I’m quite confident: in the case of Google, it also took a few years before the business model it shaped was truly understood. And that was not only true for the customers, but above all to the makers themselves.

OG: The 50 startups that make it into the finals of the CODE_n Global Innovation Contest will have the opportunity to present their companies in the CODE_n hall at CeBIT 2012. What kind of idea or business model do you think will attract the greatest attention there?

OU: At the moment I see the best opportunities for concepts based on the three pillars of web communication, “SoMoLo” – in other words, mobilizing social communication and enriching it with local information.

OG: What advice would you give to startups to get noticed at CeBIT?

OU: Offer special food and beverages (as opposed to the horrible trade fair catering). Create a peaceful oasis. And if all else fails, throw a booth party. And to stay on-topic, have a hands-on version of your product at the booth that visitors can test.

OG: Can you even still remember what life was like without a phone and the Internet in our pockets? Has life become better? Simpler? Or more complicated?

OU: I can remember it very well, especially in situations in which I’m thrown back into that way of life – and I am capable of enjoying it. That’s assuming an end is in sight (when on vacation, for example). Overall, life has become more complex in this regard, and at the same time also more convenient.

OG: And finally, two personal questions: iOS or Android? Facebook or Google+? And why?

OU: IOS, because I’m a confirmed Mac user – but mainly because it just works effortlessly. Steve understood that. And as for FB and G+: I use both, generally for different purposes.

OG: Thanks for the interview ;)

OU: My pleasure ;)

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News

How much does the Internet weigh?

Andrea Wlcek_November 10, 2011_8:48 AM_Comments (2)

Hand on your heart: How many e-mails do you send a day? How many updates do you post on Twitter, Facebook or G+ day per day? And have you ever thought about how much all this stuff weighs?

Well, we hadn’t either. But Michael of VSauce has. All the photos, videos and clobber people upload to the internet weighs as little as a single strawberry! Who would have thought it?!



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News

SASCHA LOBO: “MAYBE WE SHOULD INVENT A NEW WORD FOR INNOVATION”

Oliver Gassner_November 4, 2011_1:18 PM_Comment (1)

Sascha Lobo chats with Oliver Gassner about the digital public, the reason he wears a mohawk, about OkCupid and co. – and reveals his favorite successor to the word “innovation”.

Photo by Reto Klar, www.retoklar.de

Oliver Gassner: Hi Sascha, rumor has it that there are people who either don’t know you, or don’t have a polarized opinion of you. Would you please introduce yourself to our readers?

Sascha Lobo: My name is Sascha Lobo. I’m an author and strategy consultant. And I find myself in the fortunate and luxurious position of being able to think about the Internet full time, and to publicize my conclusions on a variety of platforms for verification.

OG: What’s the most enjoyable or useful (new) web or mobile thing that you’re using at the moment?

SL: There are several: I’d be lost without Dropbox and Gmail. Shazam brightens my chance encounters with music, and I use Twitter, Facebook, and Google+ for communication, conversation and activation. Siri is fun, but not good enough yet – the German version at any rate. And my blog is still the foundation of everything.

OG: Innovation is overrated, isn’t it?

SL: No, innovation is dramatically underrated. The word itself is smeared and shopworn from excessive, incorrect use, though. Maybe we should invent a new word for innovation that sparkles with the same beauty and utility as the idea it represents.

OG: Is the statement “Germany is hostile to innovation” meaningful, or does it simply have a convincing ring to it?

SL: I can’t say for certain whether it’s true. However, I suspect that the statement is wrong. German structures certainly are quite slow, precise, and almost ponderous. That’s usually a very good thing, but we shouldn’t ignore the fact that it can become a liability in an increasingly accelerated network age. It already is when you consider that hardly any German companies have a truly sure footing on today’s Internet.

OG: Are there any laudable exceptions?

SL: Of course there are exceptions – I would imagine there are in virtually every major enterprise. But on the whole, they still play too small a role, for example in developing new business fields and markets.

OG: I was hoping you might name one. ;)

SL: No.

OG: Is it possible to innovate without making real money in the process? In other words, can there be progress without cash flow and evil, evil profit?

SL: Profit is not evil. Businesses are not evil. Progress without businesses in the market-economy sense would be sad indeed, especially since the digital public is often hosted on private servers. I believe the digital public needs to be renegotiated, precisely because it is structurally different from the conventional public.

OG: Where do you see the platform for such a renegotiation? Or will the Pirate Party ensure that it is created throughout society, in all parties? The (old) “media” don’t seem very suitable, do they?

SL: The Internet as a whole is such a platform, as are the professional media between print and websites that digital citizens often underestimate. We certainly lack a single instance that would permit a focused political discourse. I can’t say exactly what it would look like – all I know is that we need one. And we may be lacking it for a long time to come.

OG: You met your future bride on Twitter, as you recently revealed in one of your SpOn commentaries. So, can Facebook (which I always call “hormone management software”) and ElitePartner call it a day now?

SL: Facebook, no – ElitePartner, maybe. I expect there will always be great demand for dating sites on the net – in future they are more likely to be apps on existing platforms, though. Or they’ll go in a direction that leverages the power of the net in their own way, as OKcupid.com did, with a highly social, but granular, interest-based approach.

OG: And – can we look forward to tweets from the courthouse and delivery room?

SL: No. I publish my private life only in very small doses. The announcement of my upcoming wedding on Facebook and Spiegel.de was rather an exception.

OG: So the “Sascha Lobo” we see on the Internet is a carefully designed fictional character?

SL: Not quite. There is a media-based side of Sascha Lobo and a more private one (and others, including simultaneous combinations). There may be more overlap than I sometimes care for, but they do indeed differ in the end. Nevertheless, they’re all me. And that’s why I reject the “fictional character” moniker. It’s misleading and too often used to negate responsibility for a person’s actions in the media.

But I will admit that I work with strategies related to myself personally (above all communication strategies).

OG: You probably get this question all the time, but the picture of you on the dust jacket of your book Wir nennen es Arbeit: Die digitale Boheme shows you without your trademark mohawk. When presenting the book at the Frankfurt Book Fair, you were wearing one. How did that come about?

SL: I’ve been wearing a mohawk since October 2, 2006, one and a half days before the Book Fair. The haircut, which I still really like, is a part of my communication and media strategy. It’s so obvious that I don’t think there’s any point in denying it. At the same time, the mohawk is a bundle of social experiments that I might just write about – someday. Actually, I combined this haircut with a suit already in 2002. My reasoning behind it was this: Authors at the Book Fair tout their books on the Blaues Sofa of the ZDF, the German public TV network. Holm Friebe and I were invited to present Wir nennen es Arbeit. A hundred hours of video material are then edited down to a best-of compilation for broadcasting. The authors who make the cut are either very famous, very good-looking, or have ridiculous haircuts. It may be nothing more than conceited nonsense, but it worked – and that’s the case more frequently than we’d like to think.

OG: Europe is a copycat, the United States are innovative. Right?

SL: Europe does strike me as less innovative in the small and often overrated world of Internet startups. But I’m no expert in the field, so I’ll keep my opinions beyond that superficial assessment to myself.

OG: What do you personally need to be creative?

SL: If only I knew. I dance around my creativity the way a shaman dances around a campfire to influence the weather. I achieve a basic measure of creativity with the most obvious tools that you can read about anywhere: serenity, a lack of anxiety, relaxation, study of the subject, talking to friends and holders of qualified opinions, white wine, and time pressure. But the peaks – creative achievements that I personally consider satisfactory – come about in a completely erratic manner for me.

OG: Would you care to predict what the net’s next big thing will be?

SL: The cloud of course, real-time Internet and “big data” will be the next big things in my opinion. But that’s not necessarily an unusual view – it’s totally middle of the road.

OG: Can you even still remember what life was like without a phone and the Internet in our pockets? Has life become better? Simpler? Or more complicated?

SL: Yes, I can remember, but it was in my childhood and early adolescence, and I had to look after little more than myself back then. So I’m personally very grateful for all of this digital networked stuff, otherwise I would have had to pack it in, in just about any field. I probably would have ended up bitter from persistent failure due to forgetfulness. But that’s a personal perspective. We shouldn’t forget that people also managed to accomplish quite a bit before we digital types came along – to understate things massively.

OG: And finally, let’s – as you suggested earlier – invent a new word for innovation. What would it have to sound like?

SL: Being my special field, I’ve given that some thought. My new book Wortschatz, which is coming out on November 1, 2011, is exclusively about new words. But in this case, the word already exists. It’s called “progress”.

OG: Then we’ll start using it immediately. Thanks for the interview.

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Interview

BILL LIAO: “In Europe it’s not OK to fail so people end up not taking enough chances to explore new territory.”

Oliver Gassner_October 21, 2011_8:18 AM_No Comment

XING Co-Founder Bill Liao chatted with us about Steve Jobs, Coder Dojo, and why he sticks to his waterproof Samsung mobile phone.

OG: Hi Bill, would you please introduce yourself to our readers?

Bill Liao: Hi Oliver and Hello dear readers :) Bill Liao is my name and among several things I am variously known as an entrepreneur, diplomat and author.

OG: Can you detail the entrepreneur part a little for us?

BL: Well I first became an entrepreneur at the age of 27 when I quit my day job and founded my own company teaching engineers how to sell. I then went on to become part of the team that took Davenet Limited public in Australia and have been part of 7 IPO’s total. The most recent was XING AG where I was Co-Founder alongside the Founder Lars Hinrichs in Hamburg. I am also a great believer in lean startups and have written a book on the subject called “Stone Soup – the secret recipe for making something from nothing”.

OG: What is the web or mobile innovation of the past year? What changed your personal life most?

BL: I think that the most striking innovation is a recent one where Apple has chosen to integrate Twitter into iOS5. This is the first time a social network has been integrated into an operating system. Knowing that this was coming I redoubled my Twitter efforts. At SOSventures we also invested in Storyful.com. I also created a conduit for my Google Plus content to be rebroadcast on Twitter. Storyful is an interesting innovation because it finds stories on Twitter then helps human journalists to curate and verify those stories.

OG: Is Twitter here to stay or will it eventually go the way of Altavista andMyspace?

BL: I really like Twitter and so I hope that it stays and I use it every day. I no longer use facebook every day nor Linked in nor even XING but I use gmail, g+and Twitter every day. Twitter is much faster than all the other news streams because the messages are so short. I just hope they start to deal with all the spam.

OG: Why did XING fail to make the jump to a global scale? Was it good to concentrate on DACH at some point?

BL: XING always needed to serve its core users best and the core is Germany. The problem with the early days of XING was that it was very hard to get the balance between serving members and also existing in an eco system where many corporate partners wanted to have a white label copy of XING. We were distracted by that and that meant we did not internationalize fast enough although we did do well in some other countries than DACH.

OG: Was Steve Jobs an innovator, a genius or just posessed?

BL: On the couple of occasions I met Steve he occured as pretty brusque and he had a posse of very smart people with him. I think Steve inspired devotion amongst those he worked most closely with, especially talented people like Andrew Ives and he kept these people close him, it seems. He was very good at spotting a technology somewhere and applying it to an existing problem he was trying to solve. Also he had very high standards yet a resolute eye on keeping costs down I think from Apple’s first near death experience. So very smart but not posessed.

OG: So Jobs is no role model for managers? He made his money on the back of very talented people? Or is it possible to be human and have high standards at the same time?

BL: Hey that’s a bit unfair. A great manager gains the greatest potential from the team he works with, and I am sure Steve did exactly that. Also he made far less money than the aggregate Apple shareholders most of whom are pension funds the beneficiaries of which are very happy to any return these days. I think to have high standards is a great expression of human integrity.

OG: What is the difference between a good idea and an innovation? And how do you make money from an innovation?

BL: Ideas are worthless good or otherwise invention, creativity and innovation are only worthless ideas to begin with. They need a story and they need execution to become valuable. Most of the time this involves a lot of trial and error. You make more money therefore by iteration than innovation. Just as lone heroes only win in the movies lone ideas only win in fiction as well. Innovation and inspiration someone told me are also inversely proportional to formality. I do wish Steve had iterated the ipad keyboard more though :)

OG: I understand “execution” (and I think: “iteration”, too) – can you put a little detail in the “story” part? Maybe using XING, the iPhone or Facebook as an example?

BL: A story has three parts – Crisis, Struggle, Resolution. And the best stories have a counter intuitive component. Some surprise. The pain that Steve saw was that mobile devices were fiddly to use and he knew that he could make a device that was cleaner and friendlier. The struggle was in back rooms at Apple for years to come up with the right combination for a minimum viable product to test on the market for real in a very crowded industry. The resolution was the sheer surprise and delight of using the iPhone for the first time. It was breathtaking how different and yet how intuitive it was. The iPhone brand still carries all of the story in its DNA and the surprise that a computer company could make a great mobile device still has not been beaten. The iPad is also a similar story which most people do get. The iPad’s most valuable feature is its day long battery life and yet the competitors do not see that because they focus on the wrong parts of the story.

OG: How come most online and mobile innovation seems to come from the US? Is Europe just a (talented?) copycat?

BL: I am convinced that it is because failure is far more celebrated in the US. In Europe it’s just not OK to fail so people end up not taking enough chances to explore new territory. Steve had some notable failures that would have gotten him fired many times in Europe. So Europe tends to try to refine what someone else creates. The problem is that it’s much much harder to copy something that someone else has spent a decade innovating behind closed doors because you don’t have the deep understanding of the complexity that underpins the simplicity.

OG: Well, Jobs was in fact once fired from Apple ;) – Would you dare to predict the next big thing on the web. Or easier: What should people invest in?

BL: Jobs was fired but by a CEO who came in late with big corporate ideas from a totally non innovative industry. In Europe Jobs would have been fired probably every month… Buy Apple stock it’s still cheap from any perspective. :)

Still looking to the future mobile, local, social, useful, fun are all the elements of inevitable things going forward. Investable stuff is that which an endure by the way as it’s even harder to predict what you might quickly make a buck on. So it’s best to hang in there because what the company is doing is going to be sustained.

OG: OK, let’s say: the next NEW big thing on the web or in mobile would be…? A social-local-mobile gamified something?

BL: What has mobile technology not yet solved for you? That’s the place to look. What little daily pain has not yet been catered for? I think the way we learn has huge potential. Look at www.coderdojo.com. It’s a new way to learn how to program computers and its free. No it’s not for investment of money and yet as a parent it may be a great way to invest time with your children if they are bright and inclined to learn logic.

OG: Thanks, I’ll check it out with my 11-year-old.Finally two questions about religion: iOS or Android (you partly answered this already as you seem to do this chat interview on an iPad) — Google+ or Facebook? And why?

BL: Android drives me nuts so I have an iPad but I do not have an iPhone. I have an old waterproof Samsung mobile phone because I like the long battery life.

I think Google+ is really well thought through and Facebook I find very tiring to use. So Google+ is my preference combined with Twitter.

OG: Thanks a lot and let’s hope Twitter survives in the Facebook-G+-Wars.

BL: Well, the wars are not between Facebook and g+ plus by the way. The war is being fought in the cloud. Amazon vs Apple vs Google vs Microsoft – they are the only players. Facebook is connected to Microsoft and Twitter to Apple. Will Twapple beat Amazon or Macebook who knows and its fun to watch. Amazon’s silk browser is the only real threat I see to the iPad. Stay tuned :)

OG: Actually silk made me think about getting some *pad, too. We will watch along with you. Thanks ;)

BL: Thanks :)

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Interview

MARTIN RÖLL: “If you want to invent something, invent it. If you want to copy something, copy it.”

Oliver Gassner_October 19, 2011_1:36 PM_No Comment

Martin Röll is a business consultant, trainer and coach who supports businesses, organizations and individuals with entrepreneurial, management and strategic issues. Blogger Oliver Gassner chatted with him about rome2rio, copycats, and what cooking in a Buddhist monastery has to do with innovation.

Oliver Gassner: Hello, Martin.

Martin Röll: Hello, Oliver!

OG: Please take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers.

MR: My name is Martin Röll, and I’m an entrepreneur, consultant, coach and dancer based in Luxembourg, Berlin and Dresden.

OG: A few years ago, you were very active in web consulting, before repeatedly visiting and then moving to a Buddhist monastery. Can you describe how the web was “different” before and after that time?

MR: Afterwards, it was much “slower”. I had the impression that a lot less was going on – probably not because that was actually the case, but because I was observing it with greater serenity. I no longer get jumpy over every bit of news and every tweet. :)

OG: Does that mean you feel that you get more mail if you stare at your inbox?

MR: Oh, email is different. I don’t get very much email these days. But you’re right: watching things makes them “bigger”. And sometimes more threatening. ;)

OG: Do you tend to call people or meet them face-to-face?

MR: I mainly meet people in person. I find that a lot more can happen in personal interaction than via telecommunications.

OG: I really liked your idea with office hours in a café, but I didn’t dare implement it myself. Probably because I didn’t – and still don’t – live in a big city.

MR: Actually, I think it would work even better in a small town or village. Word gets out fast: “You can find Oliver in that café every Monday; just show up and he’ll give you a hand.” Of course, then you really won’t be able to hide anymore. ;)

OG: What would you say is the difference between innovation and a (good, new) idea?

MR: Innovation is the realization of a new idea. The idea is just the start. Innovation is the actual work. :)

OG: People always get the impression that Europe is a home to copycats, while real innovation takes place in the States or even Asia. Is that true? Why (not)?

MR: Well, where does innovation come from? If I’m inspired by an American blog, and then build a product with a team from Europe, India and Korea, where do you localize the innovation?

OG: Well, it’s probably more likely that someone in the U.S. will already be working on an idea, and that someone in Berlin, Hamburg or Munich then replicates it.

MR: So? :)

OG: What’s so great about that? Isn’t that a waste of creativity?

MR: I think those are theoretical issues. If you want to invent something, invent it. If you want to copy something, copy it. Wherever you happen to be.

OG: What are the prerequisites for turning an innovation into a business?

MR: A market. :) , i.e., a buyer, and a place where the innovator and buyer can meet.

OG: And when does my innovation become tasty for the market – or even edible? Do you have a recipe?

MR: I worked as a chef for three months in the monastery. I simply cooked food the way _I_ liked it. The others usually liked it as well. And if not, they spoke up.

That could be a principle for any kind of innovation or even product development: start by doing what’s good for yourself. Then offer it to others. Listen attentively to the feedback. And then decide carefully whether to follow it or not.

OG: What’s the most fascinating innovation that you’ve seen lately – online or off?

MR: Kickstarter, and generally everything that supports the good-idea-to-product-development process.

OG: In 2005, you and Rainer Wasserfuhr philosophized about the future of mobile networking. The result was something that could be a cross between a XING handshake and Foursquare – i.e. something from 2010/2011: http://www.roell.net/weblog/archiv/2005/10/12/bahnopenbcplazes.shtml. When you look five years into the future, what do you see? What will be possible then?

MR: It’s a shame that something like that still isn’t available, isn’t it? I predict that five years from now, we’ll have a decent location-based service that will show us people nearby with whom we can do whatever is important to us at the moment. And we’ll finally have a decent search engine for travel connections, something like http://www.rome2rio.com/ and http://hipmunk.com/ and http://bahn.de/ rolled into one.

(http://www.rome2rio.com/ and http://hipmunk.com/ are cool, by the way. They certainly qualify as fascinating innovations. And I would still like to pair them with XING: “If you are traveling from A to B, travel, then stop over in C – it’s cheaper, and X lives there.”)

OG: I also wouldn’t mind finding something that could route me from door to door by public transport, rail and air. ;) Is creativity a must?

MR: Nah, not really.

OG: Why not?

MR: You need to breathe. You need to eat, drink, and excrete. Everything else is optional. It’s true, I’ve tried it!

OG: When do you tend to be most creative?

MR: When I’m not stressed. When my brain has time to resort itself. I get the most ideas in the shower, but they usually aren’t worth pursuing. The ideas that really gain traction arise in everyday situations, in a good balance of work and relaxation.

OG: So, now the tough decisions at the very end: iOS or Android, Facebook or Google+?

MR: Haha, neither, and Facebook of course.

OG: Why? Is Google untalented in the social?

MR: I think G+ is really awful. My friends are not “circles”.

OG: Are all of your contacts your friends? That’s not the case for me – nowhere.

MR: Nah. But my contacts aren’t “circles”. That metaphor simply doesn’t fly for me.

OG: In Facebook they’re lists – that nobody uses. But that’s really a matter of taste, I guess. Thanks for the interview. ;)

MR: I have nice, long, well-groomed lists on FB. :) And you’re welcome!

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