“Innovation 30” – Taking the Meeting of People’s Needs as the Starting Point
By HU, Hsiu-Chu and LEE, Luo
“Collective intelligence” is one of the key features of Web 2.0. The basic concept behind collective intelligence is the use of the Internet to pool the knowledge and wisdom of a large number of individuals and direct it towards the creation of something new. Ideas magazine had the bold idea of holding its editorial meeting at the 2010 ideas Talk conference, making this the biggest editorial meeting cum brainstorming session ever. In all, more than 100 people (including both speakers and audience), all of them leading figures in their respective fields, took part in what was almost certainly the largest editorial meeting in the history of the Taiwanese publishing industry.
The theme for the 2010 ideas Talk conference was “Transforming the city in a joyous hundredth anniversary.” Two days of brainstorming sessions produced 30 ideas for innovative application services (some of which have already been proposed, but not yet put into practice). During the discussion, Professor Lin Chin-Teng (Dean of Academic Affairs at National Chiao Tung University) pointed out that “the value of technology does not necessarily lie in how advanced it is, but rather in how it can be integrated and applied”; this is surely a valuable reminder to many people who are involved in the development of new technologies. Professor Liu Pei-Ling, Director of National Taiwan University’s INSIGHT Center, noted that, whereas in the past people tended to focus on how to apply technology when considering the development of new products, practical experience has shown that it is actually “service” that has the most important role to play in the new product development process.
Reflecting these concepts, the overall level of the technology embodied in the 30 innovative application services brought together by the ideas editorial team is not especially high; they are all services that can be implemented using existing technology. The challenge is to create a solution in which the traces of complex information and communications technology (ICT) will not even be visible to consumers using the service. Achieving this is both an art form and an exacting discipline.
Want to make a profit? Start by analyzing the user experience!
UiGathering – A cross-industry, inter-disciplinary organization dedicated to identifying new sources of demand
By GE, T’ing-T’ing
A chance meeting six years ago of six Taiwanese experts at a human-machine interface conference in Austria led to the initiation of a collaborative project to promote user experience design back home in Taiwan. Through the establishment of the not-for-profit “UiGathering” organization, they aimed to focus the energies and efforts of people in different industries and disciplines to make a meaningful contribution to the transformation of Taiwanese manufacturing towards a new focus on brand management.
What special value has led to the steady expansion of this user experience focused community, causing so many people to remain committed participants? Li Yu-Hsiu explains that there are two kinds of people who feel at home in UiGathering: people who enjoy the feeling that someone understands them, and people who enjoy being able to input their own observations and views regarding user experience. The brainstorming and exchange of ideas that takes place within UiGathering contributes to the sharing of knowledge between organizations.
So what is meant by the term “user experience”? This is something that people are unlikely to have been taught in school. To explain the concept, Li Yu-Hsiu uses selling spicy fried chicken breasts as an example. To attract the maximum possible number of customers, you need to get the quantity and temperature of the cooking oil just right in relation to the quantity of chicken used. You also have to consider all the other vital factors that contribute to giving the purchaser a “satisfying experience.” User experience design involves careful analysis of every stage in the process from product design through to production, and identifying opportunities to boost earnings. While this seems simple enough on the surface, in reality user experience design is a set of scientific techniques based on logical analysis that incorporates knowledge from a wide range of different sciences, including anthropology, communications science, engineering, etc.
According to Wu Ming-Ji, Director General of the Department of Industrial Technology, Ministry of Economic Affairs:
The cloud computing promotion plan will stimulate the creation of new business opportunities worth NT$25 billion
By HU, Hsiu-Chu
In 2010, the Taiwanese government began implementation of a dynamic new plan to promote the development of the cloud computing industry. This new project, which will involve the provision of NT$24 billion in government funding over a period of five years, is expected to stimulate NT$12.7 billion in private-sector R&D investment. According to Wu Ming-Ji, Director General of the Department of Industrial Technology, Ministry of Economic Affairs, who is also the Executive Secretary of the Executive Yuan’s Cloud Computing Industry Promotion Guidance Team, the government’s cloud computing promotion policy has already stimulated investment in the cloud computing field by companies such as Trend Micro, Quanta Computer, Wistron, Inventec, Hon Hai and Chunghwa Telecom totaling NT$25 billion.
In an interview with ideas magazine, Wu Ming-Ji noted that Taiwan is a major center for the production of cloud computing data center components. If they can master cloud computing system architecture, large-scale system management software, and data center operating system technology, Taiwanese companies should be able to allocate R&D resources to develop high-quality, reasonably-priced data center systems suited for emerging markets in the Asia region, thereby facilitating their development of the Southeast Asian and Chinese markets.
Taiwan possesses world-class IT hardware and software R&D capabilities. Wu Ming-Ji believes that Taiwan’s software industry needs the support of the hardware industry; a strategy based on “using hardware to foster the development of software” can create new kinds of opportunities for cloud computing. In the past, when Taiwan’s IT hardware industry has needed software solutions, it has had to look for them overseas. This is expensive and unnecessary; it does not necessarily conform to the needs of the regional market.
Creating big business opportunities from small nozzles
Printers are breaking free from the confines of their own industry to engage in cross-industry collaboration
By HUANG, Ts’ui-Chuan
You may find it hard to believe that the traditional printer manufacturing industry could be linked to advanced, hi-tech industries like the beauty and skincare industry, the healthcare and biotech sector, the automotive industry, the solar energy industry and the large-screen OLED TV industry.
Ch’en Cheng-Hsiung, Chairman of the Printing Technology Research Institute, points out that the printer industry is at a major turning point in its history; as long as it can achieve a sufficiently high degree of technological innovation, the printer industry is poised for take-off and explosive growth. Motonori Okumura, Chief Operating Officer of Epson’s Imaging and Information Operations Division, notes that, thanks to advances in technology, companies that possess smart inkjet technology are in a position to develop almost unlimited opportunities for cross-industry collaboration.
The basic principle behind the operation of an inkjet printer is to squirt tiny droplets of ink onto paper, thereby creating text or images. The smaller the ink droplets, the more detailed the images. The smallest images that the human eye can see have a resolution of around 1,200 dpi (dots per inch), but today’s printers can already achieve a resolution of 2,800 dpi. Technology innovation is the key factor that will make cross-industry collaboration possible.
The healthcare and biotech sector is another area where printer nozzles can play a major role. Ch’en Cheng-Hsiung explains that “gene chips” have become very important in the healthcare and biotech sector. A special glass chip carrying DNA needs to have several thousand nucleic acid probes placed on a tiny area of just a few square centimeters. The human hand is not capable of achieving the level of precision that is needed here, but a printer nozzle can. This is an application for printers that would have been unimaginable in the past.
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