GPS Upgrade

My father-in-law came in town this weekend to visit and travel around southeast Louisiana. He just got back from a few weeks traveling in Europe. As we were traveling to several different small towns to check out restaurants and festivals, Sam was telling us about his GPS.

First, it is compatible all over Europe. Second, it not only has the speed limit displayed, but also notifies you when you are approaching a speed trap! How cool?

Turns out that Google and the French Competition Authority just entered a settlement regarding advertising on the Web. As Google rejected advertising for NavX (the company that collects the speed trap data) because radar detectors are illegal in France, French authorities requested Google overhaul their policies and procedures for rejecting sponsored ads.

Google agreed to a three month notification period for ads they reject. The adjustments currently only pertain to France, but they will eventually be effective worldwide.

Although the FAC made Google change there policies on a worldwide scale, NavX still filed a commercial suit seeking 7 million euros in damages to their business. Yikes!

The Social Network

I though the Social Network was such a great movie especially for business students. The film offers a lot of do's and don'ts of the business world. Here are a few I noted:

1. Make sure you can trust your business partners. Maybe this is the lawyer in me, but if you are investing money in something, you should have a plan to go along with it.

2. Don't get too greedy. Don't steal others' ideas, screw your friends for money, or lose yourself in the pursuit of a new business venture. $26 billion isn't worth being a friendless jerk.

3. Be innovative.

4. Don't undermine the opportunities a break-up can bring. Could be an idea worth $26 billion...

5. Use your resources and collaborate. Mark used his roommates for funding, algorithms, marketing, etc. He could not have done this project alone.

6. Have a good lawyer and always settle!

Just some lessons learned from Mark Zuckerberg. Unfortunately, I am not technologically gifted. At least I have friends that are actually my friends on Facebook!

KMS

Knowledge management systems are invaluable especially to companies who only have knowledge to give. However, there are many problems in developing a successful and useful knowledge management system (as we saw with Siemens and ShareNet).

How do you ensure the quality of postings? Some companies have implemented a quality ratings system. Others have placed expiration dates on the items in order to automatically eliminate outdated knowledge and/or redundancies.

How do you encourage people to use others' experiences? People are not always willing to share their experiences. In fact, people are more likely to share only success stories whereas the failures present the most opportunities to learn. Once people post their success story, how do you get others to adopt it? Wouldn't you try and succeed on your own? Why would you want to work really hard, and then in the end give all the credit to Joe in Africa for his idea?

It is important to understand that face to face interaction is just as critical as technology. Knowledge management systems are a good resource, but I do not think a substantial investment should be made in them. They help jump start ideas, not create streamline solutions.