Insight Community: Cases

How Do Web Performance Issues Impact Your Life Online?

Tue, 26 Nov 2013 08:00:00 +0000

We've all seen the digital panic that ensues when a massive service like Gmail or Facebook goes down for even a small portion of users. Smaller versions of the same thing take place every day with services that are less widely adopted but just as important to the people who rely on them. It doesn't even take an outage to cause problems — frequent slowdowns and interruptions can quickly cause a massive productivity traffic jam. With the degree to which we live our lives and do our work online, service problems are much more than a minor inconvenience, and at the wrong moment can be a disaster.

So we want to know: how does this impact the way you use the web? Are you prepared for interruptions in the online apps and services you use most? Have you ever abandoned an app for spotty performance, or adopted one specifically for its reliability? We're looking for everything in the way of insights, anecdotes and ideas about performance issues online.

You can share your responses on the Insight Community. Remember, if you have a Techdirt account, then you're already a member and can head on over to the case page to submit your insights.

One best response chosen by New Relic and the Techdirt editorial team will receive a free one-year Watercooler subscription on Techdirt (regular price $50). The subscription includes access to the Crystal Ball and the Insider Chat, plus five monthly First Word/Last Word credits, and can be applied to your own Techdirt account or gifted to someone else.

The case will be open for four weeks, with the best response announced shortly afterwards. We look forward to your insights!

Closes: 24 Dec 2013, 11:59PM PT

How Do You Manage The Performance And Reliability Of Web Apps And Services?

Tue, 29 Oct 2013 07:00:00 +0000

For providers of online apps and services, great success equals great responsibility. As users come to rely on something, the consequences of it failing become dire, and the importance of maintenance and performance monitoring grows.

So Techdirt and our sponsor New Relic have a question for all the developers, entrepreneurs, technicians and others out there: how do you tackle this challenge? Not only does a growing user base make it more important to closely track the performance of a web app, it makes it more difficult too. How do you make sure your service is running smoothly? How do you identify major failures or performance issues as they happen? What are the biggest challenges therein, and what tools do you use to overcome them? We're also interested in any feedback you have on New Relic's own performance monitoring tools.

In exchange for your insights, we're offering some perks. Firstly, anyone who signs up for New Relic and installs the service will receive a free Nerd Life t-shirt. The basic account is free and comes with a 14 day trial of the pro service, and there's no commitment or credit card required.

Additionally, one best response chosen by New Relic and the Techdirt editorial team will receive a free one-year Watercooler subscription on Techdirt (regular price $50). The subscription includes access to the Crystal Ball and the Insider Chat, plus five monthly First Word/Last Word credits, and can be applied to your own Techdirt account or gifted to someone else.

The case will be open for four weeks, with the best response announced shortly afterwards. We look forward to your insights!

Closes: 27 Nov 2013, 11:59PM PT

Performance Matters: Share Your Insights On Web & Mobile App Hosting For A Chance To Win

Mon, 16 Sep 2013 07:00:00 +0000

No matter how useful, unique or fun and online application is, nobody's going to use it if it doesn't perform well. But as these applications scale, it gets harder and harder for developers to keep track of their performance and identify bottlenecks before they become critical. On today's web, noticing a problem only after users have reported it is too late.

New Relic, a powerful application performance monitoring tool, aims to make this challenge easier, and is seeking input from developers and startups involved in the design and operation of web and mobile services. In a series of Insight Community cases, we'll be gathering insights from Techdirt readers, with prizes for the best responses.

This month, we're starting with an open question: what are your experiences with app hosting online? We're interested to know where, how and why various apps for web and mobile are hosted, what works and what doesn't, and what the biggest ongoing challenges are when it comes to deploying a reliable, high-performance app or service. If you try out the New Relic service and share specific insights based on what you discover, even better!

The case will be open for four weeks, with the best response announced shortly afterwards. We look forward to your insights!

Closes: 13 Oct 2013, 11:59PM PT

Wanted: Content Creator Success Stories!

Wed, 12 Oct 2011 07:00:00 +0000

As we’re always discussing on Techdirt, artists are constantly finding all sorts of innovative ways to connect with their fans and give them reasons to buy. We’ve heard over and over again from other artists how much they’re inspired by hearing the details of various success stories, and realizing that the picture isn’t bleak at all, but that there are tremendous opportunities to succeed these days.

Our recent launch of the Step2 community platform gives us an opportunity to find out about and share more case studies and lessons learned. To kick this off, we’re offering cash for the best case studies.

We’re looking for many more success stories to highlight just how well artists can do by embracing new and different business models as well as new and unique ways of connecting with fans. If you’re a creator of music, videos, books or video games, we want to see your case studies of experiments you’ve done. We want to know what worked and what didn’t. The more detail and data you can provide, the better and more useful it will be. If you’re a fan, we’d love to see similar case studies, but from your perspective. Submit your case studies of unique and creative ways that artists have connected with you or gave you an extra reason to buy. Once again, the more details you can provide, the better and more useful it will be.

Be they big, medium or small, we want to hear all about them. Winning submissions in each category will provide details on lessons learned along the way, forms of success, and some numbers to back up it all up, if possible.

Head on over to Step2. Post your case studies by clicking "Start a Discussion" and, while you’re there, comment and vote on others’ case studies, help fellow community members figure out ways to find success and join the ongoing discussions. It's not just about the "business" model, but the overall "success" model.

$1,000 will be awarded to the top two vote getters in each of the following categories of case study: music, video, books, video games and fan.

Closes: 4 Nov 2011, 11:59PM PT

Video Contest: Create A PSA Video Showing The Impact Of Technology On Creativity

Thu, 06 Oct 2011 07:00:00 +0000

A few weeks ago we wrote about a contest that NBC Universal was putting on, officially through New York City, asking students to make propaganda films, repeating NBC Universal/MPAA talking points about how copyright infringement was damaging NBC Universal. In going through the fine print on the contest, we noted a few oddities. First, you were not supposed to actually use facts or data and make a case. Instead, the rules flat out told you what your position was. You had to support the claim that "piracy costs jobs." Think the data shows that the real problem is legacy companies like NBC Universal not adapting to embrace new opportunities? Too bad.

Even worse, the detailed fine print in the contest (which is pretty difficult to dig out), shows that if you win, you lose the copyright on your video. Seriously. It's pretty amazing that a video contest promoting the supposed importance of copyright to creators involves requiring creators to give up their copyrights. The prize? A measly $500.

So we're offering a competing contest, here via our Insight Community platform. We're asking people to create PSA videos showing the impact of technology on creativity today. We're not asking you to advocate any specific position at all, because unlike that other contest, we're pretty secure in our beliefs and won't melt like the wicked witch of the west should someone submit a PSA that challenges some of them. We believe that the best videos will be both creative and have a factual basis.

Also, as per our standard Insight Community terms and conditions (and again unlike that other contest), you retain the copyright to whatever you do. We would recommend a permissive license -- with our favorite being something like the CC0 Public Domain license or the WTFPL license, but it's entirely up to you. The only condition -- as per our Ts & Cs, is that we're granted a license to make use of the work as well, for the sake of showing it on our sites (Insight Community and Techdirt).

Oh, and while that other contest is offering $500 to the winner, we're offering $1,000. As a result of our original post, a bunch of you stepped up and offered up about $500 in donations for this contest, and we're matching that with another $500 ourselves.

Finally: in order to enter, you need to:

have an Insight Community account (your Techdirt login will work if you have one, or create one on the Insight Community site),
create your video and upload it somewhere public, such as YouTube or Vimeo,
include your Insight Community username at the end of the video,
add an "insight" entry to this case, in which you link to your own video.

That's it.

Earn up to $1,000 for Insights on this case.

Closes: 28 Oct 2011, 11:59PM PT

Ideas For CwF+RtB Promotions

Mon, 10 Aug 2009 19:18:29 +0000

As you know, we've been running our CwF+RtB experiment for a few weeks now. We're looking to do new promotions and special "this week only" types of offerings, on a regular basis. Two weeks ago, the special offer was a free Techdirt hoodie or free lunch with Mike Masnick, with the purchase of both the Book Club and the Music Club packages. This past week, we tried separating out just Amanda Palmer's signed book and CD for those who didn't want the entire Music Club. We've got plenty of ideas for other promotions, but we thought, why not get some ideas from you? And we'll do it as an Insight Community case, as well, to demonstrate again how the Insight Community works. So, the way this will work is that you get to suggest ideas for promotions within CwF+RtB (or potentially new tiers that go beyond the 1 week promotion), and if we use your idea (this only applies to the first person to suggest that particular idea), you'll get a free Approaching Infinity package, with the book signed by Mike (that doesn't come with the regular package). So, you'd get Mike's signed book plus a free t-shirt. We look forward to your ideas!

Closes: 17 Aug 2009, 11:59PM PT

The New World of Logistics

Thu, 28 Oct 2010 07:00:00 +0000

UPS loves logistics and is looking to start engaging with others who share its passion -- and who have an appreciation for the modern complexities of combining the latest technology with efficient supply chains. The global economy is more interconnected than ever before, and global logistics can make the difference between success and failure. The competitive advantage that integrated global logistics provides can help to improve customer service, to expand into new markets and to improve the bottom line -- and we'd like to hear about your stories.

To start off this conversation, we're interested in hearing about "new logistics" -- such as experiences involving small businesses that have leveraged logistics to take advantage of international markets, or how logistics helped you and your company to better compete with larger companies by creating new opportunities, or simply explanations of what "new logistics" means to you and how it has helped build up your company's operations.

Relevant information to include in your insights:

The type of business you're describing and how logistical obstacles are met
Summaries of how your logistical challenges were ultimately successfully resolved
Examples of modern logistics -- describing the challenges for smaller businesses just starting out
Technologies that have advanced (or will improve) logistic operations (eg. RFID, 4G wireless networks, etc)

Based on the responses we receive, we'll follow up with future cases on other topics -- or cases that further delve into viewpoints on related subjects.

Earn up to $100 for Insights on this case.

Closes: 15 Dec 2010, 11:59PM PT

Everyone Offers Collaboration Software, But Who Really Needs It?

Thu, 19 Aug 2010 07:00:00 +0000

Enterprise 2.0 has been a catch-all description for the shift towards better collaborative software tools that help groups communicate in real time to increase employee productivity. As part of this movement, IBM sees a progression away from a world centered on emails using Microsoft Word and Outlook.

Supporting this idea, IBM has a whitepaper entitled: "Collaboration 2.0 -- Taking Collaboration to the Next Level: From the E-mail and Document-centric World of 'Enterprise 1.0' to the People-centric World of Enterprise 2.0". Register to read it, and IBM would like your feedback on it.

Download the whitepaper here.

Interesting critiques of this whitepaper include, but are not limited to, questions such as:

How can this whitepaper target its audience better?
What specific business communities would benefit most from employing Collaboration 2.0 tools?
How could this whitepaper be improved? What points could be added?
Given the recent demise of Google Wave, what lessons can be learned for collaboration software providers?

The type of insights we're looking for will generate useful discussions regarding the capabilities of collaboration tools. You can also tell us about your experiences using collaboration tools (what you like or don't like about them). Additionally, you can help us out by sharing this whitepaper with others and aggregating feedback on it. Ultimately, we're interested in creating an interesting collection of opinions (and factoids) for folks who might be evaluating various online collaboration apps. We may re-print your submissions as blog posts on other websites, and your insightful aphorisms may be quoted in future publications.

The topic of this Insight Community case is sponsored by IBM. Of course, the content of this case consists entirely of the thoughts and opinions of the author(s) and not of IBM.

Earn up to $200 for Insights on this case.

Closes: 30 Sep 2010, 11:59PM PT

Looking For Feedback On IT Innovation Resources

Thu, 20 May 2010 20:46:49 +0000

As you know, we've been running the ITInnovation.com tab within Techdirt since last year, sponsored by Sun (now Oracle) and Intel. We've had a series of fascinating discussions within blog posts and webinars during that time. We've also continued to regularly refresh the IT Innovation Resource Center, which includes a rotating list of useful tools and white papers provided either by us or the sponsors of IT Innovation.

We'd like to get some feedback and insight into the quality of these resources and how they might be improved upon. Listed below are six currently available white papers in the Resource Center. If you are familiar with these topics (i.e., you work in IT), please review the white papers and write up your insights and comments on the whitepapers: what's good about them, what could be improved, what would make them more useful, etc. You are free to provide insights on as many of the white papers as you would like, but we ask that you submit insights on each white paper as a separate insight, rather than combining them into a single response.

Best Practices for Managing Datacenter Costs via Application and Server Consolidation
Server sprawl, software licensing fees, and facilities costs are sending datacenter operational expenses through the roof at a time when every penny is being scrutinized. As a result, low utilization rates and wasted power/cooling resources are no longer acceptable, and smart companies are looking to consolidation and virtualization to trim expenses and increase operating efficiency.
Why Solid-State Drives Usage Scenarios Are Expanding for the Datacenter
To accomplish the objectives of making more-efficient use of IT resources, lowering power consumption, and reducing operating expenses, many companies are turning to server consolidation and virtualization efforts—endeavors that increase server CPU utilization and reduce the number of discrete servers in a datacenter.
The New Economics of Midsize Enterprise Computing: Oracle’s Sun Systems Based on the Intel® Xeon® Processor 5500 Series
Midsize companies often face the same competitive pressures as large-scale enterprises. However, they may not possess the resources and staff to invest heavily in complex computing systems. Yet it’s critical for IT organizations within these companies to ensure that they have the strongest, most expandable systems in place, so that their companies have the requisite flexibility to adapt quickly to changing market conditions, roll out new products and services in shorter cycles, and become more effective competitors.
New Blades and Networking Solutions Ensure Solid Return on Investment
Traditionally, when companies need more computing power to deal with expanding amounts of data, they increase the number of servers, the number of compute cores per server, and the memory capacity of each server. Today’s high-powered blade servers save space and help enable significant gains in computing performance, especially when workloads are consolidated efficiently and datacenter resources are utilized most effectively. To accommodate this increase in capacity, however, the network infrastructure carrying the data must also be upgraded.
Reassessing Server Costs for Midsize Companies
Most companies keep their servers for three to five years—a time frame that seems reasonable given current economic conditions. Despite the savings this would seem to imply, however, extending server life in the datacenter in this way may not be the best strategy, even in the toughest economic times.
Oracle Solaris Operating System — Optimized for the Intel® Xeon® Processor 5600 and 7500 series
This document is intended as a technical guide for developers and system administrators that want to understand the precise details of how Oracle® Solaris and the Intel® Xeon® processor 5600 and 7500 series can improve your application solution environment.

Earn up to $200 for Insights on this case.

Closes: 30 May 2010, 11:59PM PT

Tracking Down Organizations That Are Encouraging Innovation

Thu, 13 May 2010 22:00:26 +0000

We're on the hunt for organizations (companies, non-profits, schools, etc) that encourage innovation in a unique or interesting way. Sure, every company claims to foster innovation, but few truly do. So we're looking for those rare gems. Nominate your favorite examples, and tell us why you think your nominee deserves to get some recognition.

Obviously, innovation itself is a complex concept that isn't easily quantified. But as we build up a list of examples, we may find common themes and quantifiable criteria that will help to define measures of innovative efforts. With your help, we may be able to identify the best methodologies for generating innovative ideas.

Closes: 31 May 2010, 11:59PM PT

Are You Happily Invoicing Your Customers?

Wed, 07 Apr 2010 07:00:00 +0000

Our entrepreneurship series - sponsored by AcceptPay from American Express - is compiling interesting resources, valuable tips and useful services that can help out small business owners. One of the key themes we want to discuss is the process of invoicing -- because what could be more relevant to a small business than getting paid? Every business (small or large) needs to deal with billing customers and efficiently accepting payments. For smaller companies, though, invoicing and payment collections can become a more time-consuming process than it should be.

For those of you out there who are already happily invoicing -- what kinds of invoicing software do you use? What kind of billing solutions have you tried? What is your opinion of online payment solutions? (full disclosure: AcceptPay is a player in this market.) How would you evaluate an online payment system for your company?

However, if you've ever encountered invoicing challenges that started to eat into the enjoyment of actually running your business, do you have a happy-ending story for your billing solution? What would you recommend for other small businesses that might have similar experiences? What kind of procedures have you developed to make your accounts receivable easier to handle and more reliable?

To other helpful folks who aren't (yet?) entrepreneurs, what types of small companies do you think might benefit from using online payment solutions (that may not already be doing so)? How would you describe the market for online payment services? What recommedations have you seen for small business invoicing software?

We're looking for your input on these topics, and the best response will be published on the Entrepreneur's Corner edition of Techdirt, as well as receive a monetary award. Other high-quality insights may also receive monetary bonuses, depending on the content and how many insights are submitted.

Earn up to $250 for Insights on this case.

Closes: 20 May 2010, 1:46PM PT

Propose a Webinar On Building A Business Case For IT Investments

Sun, 24 Jan 2010 19:31:54 +0000

Sun and Intel are interested in holding a webinar around the topic of building a business case for IT investments -- specifically for server datacenters. They are looking for experts to be featured in a 1-hour online webinar that will be broadcast live in mid-February (exact time to be determined). A 1-hour practice run will also be required prior to the broadcast date.

We are looking for you to submit proposals that would describe a webinar topic that you would be willing to discuss. If your topic is chosen, then you will then need to be available to participate in the online webinar, hosted by Techdirt's Mike Masnick.

The potential topics that we are interested in are:

An overview of the major factors behind IT investment decisions
Justifications that can turn a "nice to have" project into a "need to have" datacenter project
Success stories about long-term datacenter development strategies
Lessons learned from previous datacenter investment decisions
Mistakes to avoid for major IT investments

Your proposal does not have to deal with all of these topics; these are suggestions meant to serve as a guide.

In your proposal, please include:

The headline of your proposed webinar.
A description for the webinar that you would run.
A description of how a Sun or Intel representative might interact with you during your presentation.

If there are any questions, please do not hesitate to ask.

Earn up to $500 for Insights on this case.

Closes: 3 Feb 2010, 11:59PM PT

Submit A Webinar Proposal On IT Productivity Metrics

Wed, 06 Jan 2010 20:59:57 +0000

Sun and Intel are interested in holding a webinar around the topic of IT productivity metrics. They are looking for experts to be featured in a 1-hour online webinar that will be broadcast live on January 19th (01/19/2010). A 1-hour practice run will also be required prior to the broadcast date.

The potential topics that we are interested in are:

An overview of best practices for improving datacenter productivity.
What metrics are most valuable to your organization for monitoring datacenter productivity?
How do you measure lost productivity from your datacenter hardware?
Describe how your organization benefitted from adopting a metric of productivity that you had not monitored before.
How can an organization prioritize its datacenter resources for increasing productivity?

Your proposal does not have to deal with all of these topics; these are suggestions meant to serve as a guide.

In your proposal, please include:

The headline of your proposed webinar.
A description for the webinar that you would run.
A description of how a Sun or Intel representative might interact with you during your presentation.

If there are any questions, please do not hesitate to ask.

Earn up to $500 for Insights on this case.

Closes: 13 Jan 2010, 11:59PM PT

IT Predictions for 2010 And Beyond

Mon, 21 Dec 2009 07:27:12 +0000

As 2010 looms, we're continuing our series of cases here to develop interesting, engaging and useful discussions for our new sub-site, IT Innovations. We're looking for insights that might help IT managers stay informed and keep their operations competitive.

For this case, we're looking for your predictions for the upcoming year for data centers or IT management. What changes do you anticipate for 2010? What are you most looking forward to? What trends from 2009 will really pick up in 2010? What events are you planning for in 2010? These are just a few of the questions we'd like to see answered. It's hard to look into the crystal ball and predict the future with certainty, so if you want to evaluate past predictions and correct the predictions of popular IT pundits, feel free to do that, too. Our main goal is to try to offer an insightful and practical outlook for the year ahead.

This case isn't necessarily restricted to just 2010, either. If you have predictions for the distant future, please share your thoughts on what you think will happen in the next decade and beyond as well.

Earn up to $100 for Insights on this case.

Closes: 28 Dec 2009, 11:59PM PT

A Look Back At 2009 For IT

Mon, 21 Dec 2009 02:50:47 +0000

We're continuing our series of cases here to develop interesting, engaging and useful discussions for our new sub-site, IT Innovations. We're looking for insights that might help IT managers stay informed and keep their operations competitive.

As the end of the year approaches, we're looking for your views regarding significant trends or events that happened in 2009 that will affect (or have already affected) data centers or IT management. If you have a list of the "top 10" IT milestones for 2009, that would be great. But if you only think there was *one* major event, and you'd like to delve into that topic -- we're open to that discussion, too.

If you're really ambitious, an overview of the past decade could be interesting as well. Looking back at the past can help everyone plan for the future, so recent lessons from the past year (or even the last few years) could be enlightening. How has the financial crisis affected the IT landscape? How does the current environment compare to the dot-com bust? What were the most game-changing products/services/concepts that were introduced in the recent past? These are just a few of the topics we'd love to hear your opinions on....

Earn up to $100 for Insights on this case.

Closes: 28 Dec 2009, 11:59PM PT

Picking The Right Spot For A Data Center

Sat, 05 Dec 2009 02:19:56 +0000

If you haven't noticed, we're starting an ongoing series of cases here to develop interesting, engaging and useful discussions for our new sub-site, IT Innovations. We're looking for insights that might help IT managers stay informed and keep their operations competitive.

So for this case's topic, we'd like to delve into the subject of picking a data center location. We're not too interested in lengthy narratives about horror stories in selecting a server farm back in 1998. But that's not to say we don't want to hear your personal experiences. We're just aiming more for concise, non-generic advice that might help your fellow IT gurus (or gurus in training). A few hundred words should suffice.

If you're not exactly a writer, you could submit something like a mashed-up map for where data center locations are optimally located -- just as long as your contribution is relevant and useful. A picture can be worth a thousand words -- and is sometimes more illustrative of a point.

And this topic isn't restricted only to geographic factors. There are likely a multitude of reasons for choosing a data center, and we'd like to hear what you think are some of the most important.

Earn up to $100 for Insights on this case.

Closes: 16 Dec 2009, 11:59PM PT

Justifying Your Datacenter Management Improvements

Mon, 30 Nov 2009 08:00:00 +0000

For this case, we're looking for engaging content and experts to be featured who can help educate IT decision makers on the management of mission-critical applications in datacenters.

The topics for this case will focus on datacenter management services and solutions. We're looking for at least 300 words in the form of a blog post that can serve as a discussion starter, and we'd also like to encourage commenting on the submitted insights. Appropriate topics for these discussions include:

How do you effectively communicate datacenter priorities to non-technical managers?
What datacenter management services can you not live without? How do you justify the costs?
How do you assess datacenter priorities? Do you think there's a better way?
How often do you review your datacenter management tools and compare them to alternative solutions?

These topics are not exhaustive, and you do not need to address all of these suggested conversations. We welcome additional proposals for alternative subjects, and if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask.

Earn up to $100 for Insights on this case.

Closes: 14 Dec 2009, 11:59PM PT

Essential Datacenter Tips On Application Performance Monitoring

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 05:24:57 +0000

We are looking for engaging content and experts to be featured who can help educate IT decision makers on the management of mission-critical applications in datacenters.

The topics for this case will focus on application performance monitoring and testing. We're looking for at least 300 words in the form of a blog post that can serve as a discussion starter, and we'd also like to encourage commenting on the submitted insights. Appropriate topics for these discussions include:

tips for datacenter managers on improving efficiency of existing resources and an overview of the methods to do so;
a review of software tools and metrics for predicting future capacity and development;
a compilation of the common risks and benefits of automating application monitoring and testing tools; and
guidelines on the development of internal benchmarks to assess current performance and to set future performance goals.

Earn up to $100 for Insights on this case.

Closes: 29 Nov 2009, 11:59PM PT

The Importance Of Skilled Immigrants To The American Economy

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 21:21:21 +0000

One of the most difficult concepts to grasp, at times, is the difference between a zero-sum game and a non-zero-sum game. This becomes especially evident when discussing skilled immigration in America. There are many who are quite against the idea of giving visas to skilled foreigners to come to the US, believing that these individuals "take away jobs" from Americans. The only problem is that this is not supported by the data. That's because jobs are not a zero-sum game. There is not a set number of jobs that cannot change. And skilled immigrants have a long history of not just coming to the US, but also in creating a significant number of new jobs.

The importance of skilled immigrants in driving new jobs has been known for years, but the trend has only accelerated over the past decade. That older study found that 25% of Silicon Valley companies were founded by immigrants. A more recent Duke study found that this number has spread throughout the US: of tech- or engineering-related companies founded across the US, over 25% were founded by immigrants. In Silicon Valley, the number is now 52.4%. These companies are creating tremendous new job opportunities, not taking them away. Growing jobs is quite important.

Furthermore, it's difficult to see how keeping skilled immigrant labor out of the country helps the US. Those same workers do not disappear. Instead, they join tech companies in their homeland, where they end up competing against US companies. Shouldn't we want the best and smartest individuals working for US companies and helping to create US jobs, rather than the alternative?

Many of the concerns about skilled labor immigration tend to focus on the controversial H-1b program, with most of the complaints pointing to various abuses with the program. But we shouldn't be throwing out a good idea (encouraging skilled labor to come build companies in the US) with the fact that the program itself has been abused at times. If there are abuses, let's fix the abuses, while looking at better ways to encourage immigration from those we want to help us building our economy.

The Innovation Movement is an effort by the Consumer Electronics Association to make more people aware of such issues, and to make sure that Congress actually takes these issues into account, rather than just focusing on the patriotic headline while ignoring the unpatriotic results.

In this Insight Community Conversation, we're looking for thoughtful and well-written discussions on skilled labor immigration, and how to best encourage it. These can be ideas on how to respond to critics of skilled immigration programs, how to improve our current programs (such as the H-1b), or even brand new ideas for how the US could best encourage skilled immigration and enabling the creation of more jobs in the high tech sector. The best results will be used as posts on the Innovation Movement website.

Earn up to $50 for Insights on this case.

Closes: 27 Oct 2009, 11:59PM PT

Help A New Kind of Music Label Revolutionize The Industry

Tue, 06 Oct 2009 07:00:00 +0000

The music industry has changed significantly in recent years, and technology now allows musicians to distribute their work and interact with fans more easily than ever before. As times have changed, the traditional process of signing with a record label is getting more and more competition. Here we describe one alternative vision for supporting musicians that focuses on the artist and aims to disrupt conventional music publishing. The subsequent task is for the Insight Community to suggest improvements to the plan, give feedback from an artist's point of view, offer advice on implementation, and even respond with possible arguments against this approach.

The Vision of an Un-label

The 4 pillars in the work of a musician are: compose, record, be on stage and on tour. The live show is more than ever a vital component of the career of an artist, but it can not exist without the production of new tracks. For the artist to tour, an album is a prerequisite.

As always, there are costs to produce an album, but the artist should ALWAYS retain ownership of his/her work. Without artist ownership, the genuine involvement of the performer is lost. But if the artist ultimately owns the work, the musician has an honest commitment to promoting every song and a vested interest in connecting with fans. That said, albums still need to be financed at times, and a complete support infrastructure to promote the artist and his/her work is still necessary as well.

For the financing of albums, an artist will sign a temporary exclusive license to his/her music in exchange for initial funding (if necessary) and a share of revenues from tours, shows, physical and digital sales, merchandising, etc. The artist will commit to live performances and interactions with fans through various channels (eg. press, TV, web, etc). The artist will be the brand behind the music, and the new 'Un-label' will provide financing, publicity and management as necessary. The Un-label has incentives to serve the artist since its exclusive license is temporary, and the artist will be free to go elsewhere after the contract is fulfilled.

Key points summary

Artists always retain ownership of their work.
Artists get worldwide distribution with transparent accounting.
Artists get a dedicated partner with aligned incentives.

Supplemental Materials

To further explain this vision, there is an accompanying presentation to discuss this concept:

View the Presentation.

How You Can Help

The idea behind this Un-label is hopefully easy to understand, but how does a business based on this philosophy attract and convince artists? Below are some questions that attempt to focus this discussion on improving this vision. These are not the only questions to answer, but they're a starting point.

What kind of educational materials need to be created to help this business compete with the more traditional recording contracts?
If you were an artist, how does this proposition sound to you?
What are the most attractive portions of this plan for musicians? What are the least attractive parts of this concept?
Have you heard of similar businesses? How do you think similar businesses are doing?
Are there services that exist that could improve this business? Can you think of potentially good partnerships or collaborations?

Visit the CybearSonic Site (English translation)

Earn up to $500 for Insights on this case.

Closes: 21 Oct 2009, 11:59PM PT