tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21004852819469766342024-11-01T12:35:55.232+02:00Innovation is not found only in rocket science. It appears in everyday life. It is place- and culture-sensitive. It may be profitable or not, useful or not so much, but usually it is interesting, although not necessarily "fun".The Suitcase Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06533112207952662156noreply@blogger.comBlogger116125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2100485281946976634.post-30963186841542868872015-06-21T15:55:00.004+03:002015-06-21T15:56:25.962+03:00

Relationships in the office environment are, sometimes, the nightmare of HR. I'm not talking about romantic relationships - that's a completely different chapter. I'm talking about the "common" person-to-person relationships that people tend to form with those around them. Once considered "a waste of working time" and "a burden to productivity", now, they seem to be approached under a more

The Suitcase Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06533112207952662156noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2100485281946976634.post-31235852218458648092015-06-07T22:56:00.001+03:002015-06-07T22:56:20.253+03:00

Trialability is the possibility that a client or a user, in general, is given to test a particular product for a finite amount of time in order to test its characteristics and, ultimately, its suitability for a set purpose. Trialability has long been recognised as one of the 5 factors influencing the adoption rate of innovation. 'Mannequin in Venice Shop Window' by Michael Summers under a CC

The Suitcase Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06533112207952662156noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2100485281946976634.post-52441102045867352652015-06-01T21:26:00.000+03:002015-06-01T21:26:44.874+03:00

Often it is people that define the success of an organisation. Making the most out of them is essential. The various different approaches in organisational structures are meant to contribute to that. Using talented people as units or in teams in a balanced and effective way is another way to add to the boost. Increasing casual interaction, even if that is not directly work-related may be another,

The Suitcase Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06533112207952662156noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2100485281946976634.post-3026974744172571792015-05-25T20:55:00.000+03:002015-05-26T08:45:51.388+03:00

I'm not a true frequent traveller but I do complete my fair share of miles per year, mostly to destinations abroad. One of the things that I find particularly convenient, especially when I travel for work, is service integration across different companies. It is something that is usually meant to save time and money, often carrying the peace of mind bonus, too! 'Travel' by Vasile Hurghis under

The Suitcase Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06533112207952662156noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2100485281946976634.post-38920277471565016172015-05-17T23:34:00.000+03:002015-05-17T23:53:26.380+03:00

'Classroom' by Emory Maiden under a CC license Lifelong learning is not a new concept. On the contrary, it is quite established, at least as a term. Today, there are numerous courses, taught and self-taught schemes on a wide variety of topics. Some of the training schemes are even available for free - usually in the form of online courses. In many countries there are also legal or financial

The Suitcase Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06533112207952662156noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2100485281946976634.post-29138318433350903622015-05-10T23:57:00.001+03:002015-05-11T19:55:45.151+03:00

Crowdsourcing is a process that utilises a large number of people to collect input, solve a problem or perform a task. It can take many different forms but it is commonly facilitated by a suitable internet platform. 'The crowd' by Matt Karp under a CC licesne Crowdsourcing has been successfully used in a wide variety of projects and functions ranging from astronomy, where people have been

The Suitcase Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06533112207952662156noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2100485281946976634.post-53260690297592597722015-05-03T12:48:00.001+03:002015-05-03T18:06:41.085+03:00

A better question might be "do we do any DIY stuff at all?" 'Screwdriver' by Brent Thomson under a CC license Personally, I don't consider myself to be particularly skilled in making or fixing things. Despite that, I do enjoy attempting to fix things - at least those things that I believe I "understand" - which sometimes works great. Also I often take the opportunity to take things apart and

The Suitcase Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06533112207952662156noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2100485281946976634.post-87701149043234098322015-04-27T00:00:00.000+03:002015-04-27T00:34:48.913+03:00

'Hotline' by Alex under a CC license Despite how advanced mankind may look, when disasters strike disruptions do take place and, sometimes, human lives are put at risk (the earthquake in Nepal being a recent major such natural disaster). Regardless of the type of disaster, communication is essential both for the people in the affected zone and for the staff of the response teams. Under normal

The Suitcase Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06533112207952662156noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2100485281946976634.post-12475569363651792802015-04-19T23:49:00.001+03:002015-04-19T23:50:19.729+03:00

'Sunrise' by Pedro Moura Pinheiro under a CC license One can safely assume that that the question on the meaning of life is one of the most widely expressed questions in the world. One that has received considerable thought so far from a diverse range of scholars in the areas of philosophy, religion and science as well as individuals (and, well,  comedians, too), throughout human history

The Suitcase Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06533112207952662156noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2100485281946976634.post-19678739950684599072015-04-12T23:53:00.002+03:002015-04-13T01:38:12.799+03:00

Video games are amongst the non-essential things that compete for a share of our free time. Regardless of whether they are a good thing or a bad one, two things are quite certain: 'Day 220-the tetris' by ne!l chen under a CC license some of them - somehow - do manage to get hold of our attention and, thus, of a fair portion of the free time of a wide range of individuals, and  they are

The Suitcase Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06533112207952662156noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2100485281946976634.post-85343159084468918412015-04-05T21:43:00.000+03:002015-04-05T21:43:10.629+03:00

In a business, pet-projects are small-scale projects of individual employees, under their full personal control, carried out within the organisation, often using resources of the organisation. 'Luminous idea' by Tiago Daniel under a CC license Pet-projects have gained visibility through the successful practices of companies such as Google, HP, 3M, Genetech, IBM and others. There, employees

The Suitcase Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06533112207952662156noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2100485281946976634.post-46667727485216383672015-03-29T23:50:00.000+03:002015-03-30T02:29:28.686+03:00

'Balancing Rocks' by Viewminder under a CC license We often hear that successful organisations are based on effective teams. Almost equally often we hear that successful organisations are those with charismatic, efficient leaders. Those statements are complementing rather than contradicting each other. However, as the headcount and complexity of structure, operations and objectives of

The Suitcase Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06533112207952662156noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2100485281946976634.post-51587792997464318292015-03-22T21:39:00.000+02:002015-03-23T00:22:26.532+02:00

Open source software is one of the things that occasionally gets entangled in the webs of ideology, politics and corporate marketing talk. However, open source software is a rather simple idea: Develop something, using an open, collaborative approach if possible, make it available to the public as a product, together with its source code and let them use it as they please. That simple. Does this

The Suitcase Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06533112207952662156noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2100485281946976634.post-14252186818575029272015-03-15T23:37:00.000+02:002015-03-15T23:39:03.640+02:00

I don't think so (as I've argued in the past). Not yet. But it has seen better days, at least as a means of personal communication. 'Colourful Correios postboxes, Coimbra, Portugal' by Pranav Bhatt under a CC license Undoubtedly, the mainstreaming of e-mail has transformed communication among people or businesses. While it has been no substitute for phone calls or actual meetings, e-mail has

The Suitcase Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06533112207952662156noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2100485281946976634.post-83622320956047307132015-03-08T21:50:00.003+02:002015-03-08T21:58:28.212+02:00

Internet access is a mission-critical factor for most modern businesses. Even for individuals, internet access is amongst the top priorities covering both work and leisure reasons and has increasingly found its way to bars, hotels of any price range, libraries and public spaces. At a political level, Information Society (a part of which is internet infrastructure and services) is considered to

The Suitcase Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06533112207952662156noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2100485281946976634.post-89423333163681969992015-03-01T21:30:00.001+02:002015-03-01T21:42:30.073+02:00

Improving the public sector for the benefit of the citizens is, maybe, the (quiet but constant) wish of citizens and the (occasional but loud) promise of politicians. Quite rightfully so, especially in countries where considerable sums of public money are channelled to support the various social state functions, such as education, healthcare, welfare services, etc. 'Winner' by Alessandro

The Suitcase Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06533112207952662156noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2100485281946976634.post-80962069410757669252015-02-23T16:39:00.001+02:002015-02-23T16:51:41.992+02:00

The idea of "open data" is not new but it seems to be gaining popularity, recently, especially for data generated by using public or publicly funded means. 'Molecular energy at work' by Let Ideas Compete under a CC license "Open data", as a term is subject to different definitions and, thus, is applied in different ways. The most basic, clear-cut definition available dictates that "Open

The Suitcase Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06533112207952662156noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2100485281946976634.post-25445227696015963302015-02-15T20:41:00.000+02:002015-02-15T20:41:06.926+02:00

'Penguins have a meeting' by Laura Taylor under a CC license Businesses and people have grown past the local scale for quite some time now making communication an obvious priority. Despite the increasing number of communication means available, face-to-face meetings still persist. That happens in spite of their higher cost compared to other commonly available alternatives. Why is that? Are

The Suitcase Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06533112207952662156noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2100485281946976634.post-60227762993861920062015-02-08T23:39:00.000+02:002015-02-08T23:39:31.435+02:00

This is the 100th post I have prepared here. '05 Birthday' by Marie Coleman under a CC license OK, I' m cheating a bit. Two of my texts have not been published yet, so, actually, it is 98 published post plus 2 on hold. Nonetheless, I consider it a personal milestone. What started, at the end of 2009, mainly as the result of my curiosity to see what keeping a blog is all about, has survived

The Suitcase Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06533112207952662156noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2100485281946976634.post-88465807777418246722015-02-01T22:02:00.001+02:002015-02-01T22:02:50.172+02:00

EFSA, EMA and ECDC have published a joint report on the correlation of the consumption of antimicrobials by food-producing animals and humans and the occurrence of antimicrobial resistance. Not surprisingly, they found positive associations between antimicrobial consumption and antimicrobial resistance in humans and food-producing animals but also, in some cases, positive associations between

The Suitcase Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06533112207952662156noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2100485281946976634.post-21850223971121829762015-01-25T21:02:00.001+02:002015-01-25T21:02:52.287+02:00

It is well known the our bodies are inhabited by billions of microorganisms, mostly bacteria. The majority of those are benign and don't pose any threat to us, provided that we are reasonably healthy. Having said that, current thinking suggests that maintaining one 's health is tightly connected to the maintenance of properly functioning bacterial communities in our bodies. 'Vintage 80's Scope

The Suitcase Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06533112207952662156noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2100485281946976634.post-34335851642852659322015-01-18T22:00:00.001+02:002015-01-18T22:25:18.543+02:00

The internet together with the increasingly easy access to the online world have changed considerably the expectations we have from news and content providers, in general. Once upon a time, getting the daily newspaper and, perhaps, a weekly magazine was all it took to satisfy our hunger for news. Alas, not any more. 'What's the news' by ¡kuba! under a CC license The internet gave the

The Suitcase Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06533112207952662156noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2100485281946976634.post-20994918247454821532015-01-11T23:39:00.001+02:002015-01-11T23:40:23.428+02:00

'YVR Pictograms' by Tom Magliery under  a CC license A pictogram is an image, often depicting a physical object. that conveys a specific message. Pictograms are meant to facilitate the perception of a message, regardless of the language skills of the people exposed to them. Well, the latter in some cases is rather optimistic. Of course, in the case of widely used pictograms, such as road

The Suitcase Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06533112207952662156noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2100485281946976634.post-50578664983105472592015-01-06T23:57:00.000+02:002015-01-07T00:55:49.609+02:00

Doing good or, at least, doing something good, is very much within the spirit of these days (Christmas, New Year's Eve, Epiphany). People are willing to be more open, to give to those in need, to contribute to good causes and to feel that they are doing their (little) bit to make world (or, even, a tiny part of it) a better place. 'Donation box' (cropped and size-reduced), originally by

The Suitcase Manhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06533112207952662156noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2100485281946976634.post-79087691968196256892015-01-04T23:05:00.003+02:002015-01-04T23:05:33.555+02:00

People say that defining goals in life is important. I agree but defining, aggregating and putting those goals on a list at a finite moment in time is not necessarily the way for me to go. At least not until I give myself some time for reflection. After all, it seems that there is some scientific evidence supporting that reflection helps self-improvement. 'Tree Reflection' by Doug Wheller

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