OLDaily

Ecosystem Businesses Are Changing the Rules of Strategy
Julian Birkinshaw, Business Review, 2019/08/08

In a sense this is old news, because as the author observes, industry networks have been around for some 20 years. By the same token, the article still signals a change in what might be thought of as business strategy, from 'moats' to 'turnstiles'. "This shift from moats to turnstiles can be hard to grasp. For most business strategists, it is second nature to protect your existing assets and to keep competition at bay. But a pure-play orchestrator is happy to open up to competition and to share its intellectual property, as long as that keeps the ecosystem growing. Its aim is to maximize the number of people coming through the turnstile, rather than to increase the height of the fence or the width of the moat." Imagine marketing an online course this way...

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Universities Use YouTube for Recruitment
Justin Ferriman, LearnDash, 2019/08/08

The question to ponder here after reading this article is whether higher education is just another channel (albeit a really expensive one) in the information landscape. Now you might think - pah! Universities do a lot more to engage people than simply stream video. Well, yeah. But the information landscape is changing a lot. Video (like the advertisement video mentioned below) is just one part of a wider engagement strategy. Information is becoming a full-body experience - think, for example, how the Marvel universe blends everything from movies to toys to fully immersive cosplay experiences to conventions and games. You may think of the video advertisement as just an advertisement. Not anymore.

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Memory editing from science fiction to clinical practice
Elizabeth A. Phelps, Stefan G. Hofmann, Nature, 2019/08/08

This article stimulates the imagination - we can erase memories! It raises various potential applications, for example, additiction therapy or resolution of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Or it might just be a way to blog out the worst night of your life. Of course, we should consider how it could be misapplied as well. Behind these obvious questions are questions about that the article reveals about the nature of memories and remembering. There are ways to reinforce memories as well, but they have nothing to do with cognitive load. Something to think about.

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Pull requests and the templated self
Ben Werdmuller, 2019/08/08

A few days ago Ben Werdmuller asked what the biggest problem to be solved in software is. I suggested 'documentation' (and I stand by that). But this is a good one too. He writes about the 'pull request', which is a standard part of software development. Essentially, the idea is that new code can be reviewed before it is added to a project. But maybe - suggests Werdmuller - there needs to be wider oversight. "Pull requests, in their current form, encourage teams to take a code-first approach without considering the human impact or social context of their work," he writes.

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Great Marketing Video for a Service Called ‘Chatbooks’
Steve Borsch, Connecting the Dots, 2019/08/08

I'm not sure I've ever deliberately linked to an ad, but I echo Steve Borsch's opinion that this one is especially well designed. "It is an amusing and well-produced video pitching their service called Chatbooks and I smiled just about the entire time the video ran." You will too.

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