As part of the ActiveWords Odyssey, I have gotten to know Neil Squillante of Technolawyer fame. Neil's a great guy, and another Dukie.
He and I were recently chatting about "aggragating innovtion", and I told him that I would write some. With the kind help of Neil and Jim McGee, the article below went out to about 11,000 geek lawyers. I will be curious as to feedback.
Guest TechnoEditorial: Retooling The iPod As an Example of End User Innovation
By Burton L. Bruggeman, buzz@activewords.com
As both a lawyer and software entrepreneur I have been struck over the last few years by the quality of innovative products available to the consuming public.
I have also learned that getting these gadgets and gizmos to work right is always a challenge, and at times down right daunting. My good friend Jim McGee, one of the truly bright guys that I know, suggests that a meaningful variation on Clay Christensen's "Innovator's Dilemma" is not whether you can innovate, but whether you can configure other people's innovations to work for you.
For example, consider a hot topic these days -- personal digital entertainment.
While not wanting to date myself, I grew up in the frozen North without TV, where listening to the radio was an important form of information and also great family entertainment. Recreating that experience can be easily done if you understand how to assemble the components.
The key ingredient in my entertainment toolset is a Windows-based Apple iPod. I have a second generation model. Mine contains 20 gigabytes of storage, and houses my entire CD collection. MusicMatch (a downloadable application) came bundled with my iPod. MusicMatch enables me to easily copy and organize my music both on my computer and then onto the iPod.
The only caveat with the iPod is that you will need either a Firewire or USB 2.0 port on your computer. Installing an Adaptec Duo card took me about 5 minutes from start to finish, and Windows XP immediately recognized it. As an added bonus, if you purchased the latest 30 gig iPod, and have either a Firewire or USB 2.0 port on your laptop, you can easily use the iPod to back up all your files.
Next, I subscribed to Audible, and downloaded the free Audible Manager software. The Audible Manager software immediately recognized my iPod, and moments later I had Audible books running on my iPod. Audible offers multiple ways to buy and use its services. I view Audible as a terrific resource for listening to those books I either might not read or wouldn't have time to read. For me, Audible is learning on demand. It's too bad for those of us who must get CLE hours that providers don't team up with Audible so that you could buy the best of CLE on this platform a la carte. Unless, of course, you like sitting in dingy hotel meeting rooms listening to someone read from their notes.
The final pieces of my entertainment puzzle consist of Gudhear's ER-6 ear buds and Griffin Technology's iTrip.
The ear buds that come with the iPod are serviceable, but after doing some research at epinions, I discovered Gudhear's ER-6 sound-isolation ear buds. The ER-6's are dazzling. They work brilliantly and truly create a sense that the narrator of the book you might be listening to resides in your head.
For those of you who fly often, I also purchased from CyberGuys, an Airplane Stereo Audio Jack Adapter, which enables me to use the ER-6's to listen to either movies or the various travel channels when not listening to my iPod.
The iTrip enables me to broadcast my iPod to any available FM radio frequency on my car stereo not used by local broadcasts. Driving down the highway listening to great fiction sure beats talk radio or music with lyrics that you don't understand.
So, the test in my mind is not whether the individual components work, but how to bring them together so that the end result is memorable.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Burton "Buzz" Bruggeman is a Florida lawyer who co-founded Active Word Systems, a red-hot technology startup that dazzled the audience at Demo 2003 earlier this year with ActiveWords, a Windows utility that enables you to control your computer by typing words of your choosing. Buzz also publishes the BuzzModo blog in his spare time. You can contact Buzz via e-mail.
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