Apollo Ideas - Shift Happens!

I would like to introduce an award winner presentation consulting and design firm, Apollo Ideas.

In 2007 and 2008 their presentations (Shift Happens, THIRST) were awarded first place in the prestigious annual World's Best Presentation Contest on SideShare.net. Please see the famous Shift Happens slideshow below:

Shift Happens

View more presentations from Jeff Brenman.

What motivates you?

Two questions that can change your life from Daniel Pink on Vimeo. Check out this awesome video presentation created for Daniel Pink’s new book, Drive.

It’s a fantastic example of how a video presentation can tell a short, powerful story to sell an idea.

Two questions that can change your life from Daniel Pink on Vimeo.

Bill Gates on energy: Innovating to zero! | Video on TED.com

You can watch Bill Gates' talk about energy and climate problems and his way for the proper solution by clicking the below link:
Bill Gates on energy: Innovating to zero! Video on TED.com

For those who doesn't know who Bill Gates is (!);

"He is founder and former CEO of Microsoft. A geek icon, tech visionary and business trailblazer. In summer of 2008, Gates left his day-to-day role with Microsoft to focus on philanthropy. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has now donated staggering sums to HIV/AIDS programs, libraries, agriculture research and disaster relief -- and offered vital guidance and creative funding to programs in global health and education.

Gates believes his tech-centric strategy for giving will prove the killer app of planet Earth's next big upgrade."

The Most Innovative Companies 2010

Here is the most recent "most innovative companies 2010" list from Fast Company magazine.

Fast Company's annual Most Innovative Companies issue honors major brands including Cisco, Disney, and GE along with such rising newcomers as Spotify, Gilt Groupe, HTC, and the Indian Premier League. Facebook leads the annual ranking of the Top 50, after growing its user-base from 150 million to 350 million in just one year.

Overall, Fast Company recognized 250 plus companies, including more than 75 non-U.S. businesses. Five of the Top 50 are based in China: Huawei (No. 5), BYD (No. 16), Alibaba (No. 29), HTC (No. 31), and Huayi Brothers (No. 42).

Facebook, which is founded in 2004, has achieved a level of maturity most wags thought would never come. Somewhere along the road to becoming the platform of choice for 400 million users in every country on earth, the company grew up. The founder, Mark Zuckerberg, now mingles with his 1,200 employees, recruited and supported by a real HR person, in a new 135,000-square-foot office space.

Romeo & Juliet

This year my lovely wife got me a special Valentine's Day present: The puzzle of the most famous love story of Romeo and Juliet.

It is not just beautiful, it is also huge! The puzzle has 3.000 pieces and has a 120 x 85 cm dimensions. It will be a big challange for us. Of course, this is not our first puzzle experience. We have completed the Mona Lisa (1.000 pieces) and Magna Carta (1.500 pieces) last year.

Completing a puzzle after many and long (literally) nights means that we have finally a very special picture we can get framed and hang on to our walls. We think this is much meaningful than just going to IKEA and buy a standart piece of art and we love it!

So as I said, we have a very big challenge before us and I hope to finish it before the next Valentine's Day. :-)

Dilbert!

I am sure, you've heard or seen this famous cartoon Dilbert and Co. Dilbert is a composite of cartoonist Scott Adams' co-workers over the years. He was using him for business presentations and after getting great responses Dilbert was launched in 1989.

Today Dilbert appears in 2,000 newspapers in 70 countries (Radikal in Turkey), making it one of the most successful syndicated comic strips in history.

Enough with words, just click dilbert.com, subscribe for daily strip and let the fun begin!

Green Dot Awards

I would like to share another prestigious award, "The Green Dot".

The Green Dot Awards honors excellence in "Innovative Environmental Projects, Products and Services". The Green Dot Awards strive to reward and promote forward-thinking businesses that create environmentally sustainable products or services and to reward revolutionary green business plans and proposals. They are giving away the awards in 7 different catagories; Transportation, Design, Build, Products, Services, Entertainment + Culture and Concept.

This year the winners are announced last week and two turkish designers have been awarded in two different categories.

Dr. Hakan Gürsu and his team from Designnobis have won the 1st prize in Build Category. The winning project Decobrick is a decorative, purely ecological brick design composed of recycled materials with a simple production process. Idea is very simple and clear: Think about the million and million disposable plastic tea, coffee cups or numerous plastic pack pieces are used and trough it any away finished their life cycles. If 4-6 pieces used plastic unit were collect and put in a very simple mould system design and every one can easily create 3-d brick systems.

Bora Çakılkaya and his company p-arch have won the 2nd prize in Products Category. With this design, they enable that the water, which is consumed at lavabo is collected in great reservoir bunker by being filtered, is made use for the need of closet.

Turn waste office paper into toilet paper

Since I am working in the paper business new developments and inventions on this area are always interesting for me. They can give very good indications on which direction and how fast the technology evolves. However, they can be a threat to me like the below machine too. :-) Can you imagine that everyone has its own paper machine at home and produce its own brands?

Let's hear more from the technology sharing platform Gizmag:

A company in Japan has developed a machine that shreds paper and then converts the waste into readily usable toilet paper.

The process requires you to add water, and it requires about 30 minutes to thin out the paper and generate one roll of toilet paper. This paper looks far from snuggly soft, but it's undeniably a significant step towards a greener office space. The entire process is automated, so it's definitely a big convenience.

The 'White Goat' as it's called is not a contraption that you're likely to squeeze under your desk however. It's mammoth size (1.8m tall and 600kg) would definitely be a better fit in your server room if you have one.
It's set to go on sale this summer in Japan for a price of about US$100,000. No word yet on how much electricity it takes to convert shredded paper to toilet paper, but we certainly hope that the power consumption doesn't cancel out the green benefits of such a promising machine.

Fortunately, this machine is a concept machine and it is too expensive and big to turn to a commodity product. But you never know what the potential "White Goat V.2" will be capable of...

After iPad which e-reader is the best?

If you’re looking to purchase an e-reader and just can’t decide on the best one, PaidContent has compiled a comprehensive and very useful chart that compares the Amazon’s Kindle 2 and Kindle DX, Sony’s Daily Edition, Barnes & Noble’s Nook, Plastic Logic’s Que proReader, and Apple’s iPad.

The chart compares the six most popular e-readers in 20 categories including hardware spec, software and content. To maximize the below chart click the following link: http://paidcontent.org/table/e-reader-comparison-chart/

It is look like with it's (only) 11 hours battery lifetime iPad has a very long way to compete with the old dogs like Kindle and Nook. However I am sure that Jobs has already something in his mind! ;-)

I don't know you but I still have 9 months to decide and it is look like Kindle 2 is still the most favourable one, with its reliable software, reasonable price and wide content at this very moment. We will see which one it will be! I will be following the news closely thanks to the services like PaidContent.

Bio-Degradable Pen

Sizlere Türkiye'de bir ilk olan bir ürün tanıtmak istiyorum.
Steppen firması Göknar ve Erguvan isimli kalem serisi ile, hem “biodegradable – compostable” (biyolojik olarak tamamen bozunabilen ve gübreleşen) özellikli bioplastik hem de geri dönüştürülmüş malzeme kullanarak Türkiye’de bir ilki gerçekleştirmiş. Yeni ürünün burun, buton ve klipsi bioplastik (mısır nişastasından elde edilen), gövdesi ise geri dönüştürülmüş kağıttan üretiliyor.

Mürekkep içeriğinde hiçbir ağır metal ve zehirli madde içermeyen üründe, baskı için de halojensiz mürekkep kullanılıyor. Doğada %90‘ı 1- 3 yıl arasında çözünüp yok olan kalemin bioplastik parçaları gübreleşerek ekolojik çeşitliliğe yarar sağlıyor.

Firma 25 Aralık 2009 günü İstanbul Sanayi Odasında gerçekleştirilen törende, doğada biyolojik olarak bozunabilen kalem tasarımıyla “İSO-KOBİ Çevre Dostu Ürün Ödülü’nü almaya hak kazanmış.

Geçtiğimiz hafta katıldığım İstanbul Sanayi Odasının "İnovasyon Yönetimi Eğitimi"nde tanıştığım firmanın Pazarlama Müdürü Tunç Şengül'ün tanıttığı bu ürün gerçekten de kullanırken bile insana doğaya saygılı olduğu hissini veriyor. Bu konuya inovasyon.org internet sitesininin sahibi Aykut Göker de Cumhuriyet Bilim Teknik / Teknoloji Dergisinin son sayısında değiniyor.