Smart Shoppers Use Smartphones

Amanda F.

For the past two decades, the Internet has made digitally driven consumers into more savvy shoppers. However, when we compare last year’s recession shopper to this year’s economically conscious, Smartphone-carrying, internet-ready 24/7/365 shopper, it will be interesting to see how mobile commerce and/or applications will begin to affect holiday shopping habits.

Bloomberg predicts that by the year 2015, mobile commerce will grow into a $119 billion global industry, so why not get ahead of the curve and see what’s available to us now …MORE…

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Money vs. Effort

Bill A.

In the spirit of Tuesday’s voting, I wanted to change course from my regular beat of “business strategy” and talk for a minute about politics. Before you stop reading, rest assured, this post is not about this party or that; the candidate who won or lost. Instead, this post is about a little experiment I did to look at money vs. effort within our political system.

Abraham Lincoln said, “Our government rests in public opinion. Whoever can change public opinion, can change the government …”

And herein lies the power of interest groups … to influence public opinion and thereby the government. On a whole, interest groups get a bad rap, but on some level they can be valuable contributors to the voice of the people and issues that otherwise wouldn’t get the attention and protection from our government they deserve …MORE…

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Scary Midterm Thoughts

Elisa C.

As a member of the core team of verbatim bloggers, I’ve been asked to develop fun content that makes you laugh/smile/think on a Friday. While we had a great Halloween event with Communispace families this week (there are more pictures on our Facebook fan page), I hope you’ll allow me to be un-fun this week. Why? Because I’m scared. No, it’s not the Halloween costumes. It’s the midterm elections. This post isn’t about a particular party or candidate, but rather the whole political scene.

Maybe some context might help. Recently, I was driving to work listening to NPR’s “Morning Edition” when I heard a report from PolitiFact.com that found that this year’s campaign ads rate a “Barely True.”MORE…

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Great Scott! Are you innovating?

Amanda F.

I was recently reading a Mashable article and had a brief “Back to the Future Part II” flashback (a flashback about time travel to the future, ironic). Marty McFly was in 2015, where cars were flying. Well, we haven’t gotten there just yet, but 2015 is only four plus years away.

But for now, Google is testing technology that will drive our cars for us. They claim it will halve the number of accidents, even potentially reduce fuel consumption. Who doesn’t want to pay half as much for car repairs, insurance premiums or gas? Fantastic.MORE…

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Oh Baby

Nora T.

It seems like you can do almost anything from your smartphone these days; order a sleek new pair of jeans, video chat with your friend across town, book and unlock a Zipcar, find a nearby place to eat and even delivery a baby.

That’s right, deliver a baby.MORE…

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Robots Building Robots?

Julie W.S.

While doing “secondary research” (i.e., procrastinating) on an ESOMAR conference paper I’m writing on customer-driven innovation, I came across this weirdly mesmerizing video from Fanuc Robotics, a leading supplier of industrial robotic automation, narrated by this voice that is, well, robotic:MORE…

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A Tale of Two Saturdays

Kat L.
A few weeks ago, while Glenn Beck, the American conservative radio and television host was leading his “Restoring Honor” rally on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., I was busy with my own endeavor, holding a sidewalk sale outside my Somerville, MA, apartment in an attempt to rid myself of all unnecessary possessions. Now, what could these two events possibly have in common? Well, other than the fact that nobody really seemed to care, they both echo the insights gleaned in Communispace’s latest research report, Local:Eyes, which explores the current trend towards local buying and is due out this month.

MORE…

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verbatim 2.0

Devon J.

Fall is the time for change. People’s schedules, wardrobes; even the leaves go through an evolution, and here at Communispace, we are all about embracing that idea. We recently kicked off the fall (OK, OK…late summer) with our fabulous new website. (If you haven’t checked it out yet, I strongly suggest that you do.) And now, we’re proud to announce our latest pet project—verbatim 2.0.MORE…

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