Creative Commons Meets Mashup Software To Promote Innovation

Here’s the bottom line about innovation (the ultimate engine of the U.S. economy): It doesn’t just pop out of thin air. Nothing is truly “original.” Innovation requires the spark of inspiration. And what is inspiration but a kind of “mashup?”

Usually, innovators are inspired by other people’s creations or ideas. They take what’s already out there and expand upon it, combine it, tear it apart, turn it upside-down or inside-out… and voilá! A new innovation is born.

Freedom is the true key that unlocks innovation, however. When creative people feel free to play with the ideas and creations around them, they innovate more. But when the raw materials of inspiration are locked up by restrictive rules, when playing can be misconstrued as stealing, innovation gets difficult and risky.

It’s pretty hard to innovate in a climate of fear.

The sad irony of intellectual property law (copyright, trademarks, and patents) is that originally it was intended to benefit society by expanding access to creative works. It achieved this by making innovation less risky by ensuring that people could earn a living from their creativity. But over time, it’s evolved into the key obstacle to creativity. When copyright and patent holders stifle innovation, things have gone too far.

We see this when the recording industry sues remix musicians, when companies sue artists who parody their ads or products, when electronics companies sue each other over similar design features, and when software makers sue developers who independently hack together improvements to popular but clunky programs. “Fair use” is becoming an endangered species in IP court cases.

Right now, as the U.S. economy appears heading for recession, we need innovation more than ever. Innovation grows markets and economies in healthy, robust, diverse ways. It’s the opposite of stagnation, and the best antidote to recession. We think it’s high time to create a business climate where playing around with existing creations is easier more fun, and (above all) less risky and scary.

Stanford law professor, Lawrence Lessig, and other brilliant people, have been tackling this problem head-on for several years. He’s one of the founders of Creative Commons licensing: a legal alternative to copyright that lets “authors, scientists, artists, and educators easily mark their creative work with the freedoms they want it to carry.”

At Serena Software, we believe that Lessig’s philosophy can – and should – apply to business and technology as well as art, literature, and music. That’s why we recently published a series of “business mashups” that anyone can download, remix, and use to combine popular business software packages in more useful and customized ways.

Not only are our business mashups free of charge; we also decided to offer them under a Creative Commons license that allows users to freely create derivate works.

Our choice of license is somewhat controversial in the software business. So far, Creative Commons licensing has applied mainly to “content” such as text, images, music, audio, and video; rather than to software, which is treated more like a product. We examined several “open” license options common in software such as the GNU Public License, However, those all focused on source code – the instructions followed by computers, not the usefulness or meaning as experienced by human beings.

Our business mashups may be software tools, but they’re really about people and creativity. We chose to offer them under a Creative Commons license because people experience them more like a type of content than a piece of software.

So far, our experiment appears to be working: People are indeed playing with our mashups, using them as the basis for their own creative works. While we’re glad that this expands our business, ultimately we think it’s more fulfilling and profitable for everyone (our users, their organizations, and the economy in general) to have free access to the tools of innovation.

Thriving in an economy based on innovation means not holding on to too much control.

Bringing Social Media (and Common Sense) to Work

Let’s be honest: Business has never been all business. Companies are made up of people, and people talk. They also have lives, and interests, and fun, and friends – even friends they meet at work or through other business or professional interactions. Pretending your employees are robots has never been a winning human resources strategy.

Companies have always known that socializing is good for business. That’s why they’re willing to shell out considerable cash on corporate retreats, golf outings, association memberships, and conferences. (Admit it: Why do you really go to conferences? Is it the panel sessions or the hospitality suites?) It’s not just networking, prospecting, and ladder-climbing – it’s simple human bonding.

That’s why it makes no sense to fear Facebook, Twitter, or other social-media services. Furthermore, banning these services from your workplace only causes friction and closes off important business options.

For most people (hyperfocused workaholics excluded) the human drive to connect and share is stronger than the duty to spend every possible moment “being productive.” No matter what, people will find ways to socialize and share during work hours. It might be best to treat this like sex education: If your employees are going to “do it” anyway, why not encourage them to channel their social-media impulses in smart, safe ways that can potentially help your business?

Today, life and work overlap more than ever before. Technology is making that overlap more seamless. To thrive in this environment, the key is to embrace the trend toward “24/7 work/life” and temper it with basic common sense. This is especially true if you wish to recruit and keep the most talented and creative staff, or to strengthen and grow relationships with your customers, suppliers, and partners.

Here are a couple of practical ways that your employees could help your business via social media:

• Gain trust. Everyone hates interacting with a “faceless company.” Employees with active Facebook pages or extensive Flickr galleries seem much more approachable and engaging. In fact, if your customers indicate a strong preference for a certain social media service, it might make sense to give your company a semi-official presence there, run by real humans, for informal customer service and true “public relations.”

• Improve R&D. Social media provides ample insight into people’s lives, concerns, frustrations, and wants. Ask your employees to volunteer useful information about trends – not to inform on individuals, but rather provide general context that might help your company enhance its offerings or operations.

Of course, your lawyers and managers will have valid concerns that given the chances, employees might use social media to waste time, leak proprietary information, air dirty laundry, perpetrate libel and slander, and just plain act stupid or embarrassing.

I’m not saying these problems never happen. But don’t blow them out of proportion, and always try to influence behavior with positive examples and reinforcement.

For instance, at Serena Software we’ve decided to help our employees constructively channel their social media time with “Facebook Fridays.” Starting November 2, every Friday our 800 employees in 18 countries will have an hour of personal time specifically for participating in Facebook – building profiles, playing with applications, and connecting with coworkers, customers, family, and friends. In effect, we’re making Facebook our company’s intranet.

Of course, there’s more you can do. Most importantly, you can give employees clear guidance about which kinds of public communication (in any media) are fine and beneficial — as well as which are prohibited or discouraged.

Your public communication policy should provide plain-language, common-sense guidance for sharing company information, making statements in areas governed by regulations, and for associating (or disassociating) the company with public behavior or statements. This policy should apply to all public communication – from online, to talk radio, to in-person.

Don’t just hand down your policy from above. Bring employees who are already active in social media into the process, right from the beginning. Let them help you craft a public communication policy that makes sense. If these in-house leaders support it wholeheartedly, others will follow – and you’ll have even fewer problems.

Just be sure to always keep the lines of communication open, and never make a total clampdown your first or final response to trouble.

I know, this sounds like work. It may be tempting for busy executives to sidestep the social media issue with a blanket “Thou shalt not.” However, that approach leaves employees with zero constructive options — and probably a good deal of resentment. Not good, especially online.

…The bottom line is: You can’t really keep your employees away from social media. They’re going to do it anyway, even at work. If you don’t give them options to participate in social media on terms friendly to your company, you’re asking for trouble.

So start talking to your employees about this. Find out who’s interested in helping you experiment. Capitalize on their energy. And don’t forget to “friend” them.

Software as a Service: What Does it Offer?

Imagine you just bought an expensive new shirt. It fit great when you tried it on in the store, but after you wear it a couple of times you realize it feels scratchy.

Now imagine you take it back to the store. The clerk says, “Sorry – no exchanges or returns. But we’ll be happy to make any alterations you need for a nominal fee.”

Alterations won’t help — the entire shirt feels scratchy. But you do need a shirt, and right now you can’t afford to buy another one, having just blown your shirt budget for the next two years. So for now you get used to the scratchy shirt (which, incidentally, also manages to go quickly out of fashion). You never like wearing it, and you complain about it a lot.

Not fun.

Sadly, that’s exactly what happens to many companies that buy enterprise software packages to handle crucial business systems and processes such as accounting, human resources, customer service, or supply chain management. The software may even be initially customized at great expense. But in practice, at the time of purchase neither the business nor the software vendor has a crystal ball to see how well the package will really “fit” the business in the months and years to come.

Sure, the vendor can tweak and upgrade the software – for a fee, every time. And also, over time, the vendor’s attentiveness and responsiveness will probably wane. Eventually the company ends up struggling with software that can’t keep pace with evolving demands and that has become downright annoying to use.

Reality check: Business is always a moving target. Needs change. Also, good tools are solutions, never obstacles. That’s why the software as a service (SaaS) model is making more and more sense for many companies, and why its market share is steadily climbing.

It used to be that enterprise-level software could only run on dedicated computers. Those behemoth programs didn’t talk to each other well, and they weren’t designed for change. Such constraints are, in part, why old-school enterprise software vendors adopted such a rigid approach to doing business.

Meanwhile, out on the Internet, technology has grown more creative, collaborative, and versatile than was ever possible within the “walled garden” of a closed corporate IT silo. Today we have programs that not only exchange information easily; they depend on sharing and thrive on collaboration. These programs are constantly evolving and improving, offering greater flexibility for more specific customization.

Even better, their shared nature offers greater economies of scale, bringing down the price. Security has vastly improved, even when several companies are utilizing the same instance of a vendor’s program. And since it all runs over the Internet, individual end users have considerable freedom to use SaaS programs where and when they want, on devices they prefer, and even to customize their own interface and reporting.

Best of all: Companies can “try out” SaaS offerings fairly thoroughly at limited cost. You can make certain — up front — that the software you’ll use will truly fit, feel good, and keep pace with your changing needs.

No SaaS vendor will ever tell you “no exchanges, no returns.” Their business depends not just on getting you to buy, but keeping you satisfied. It’s great to finally have technology options that support more human, less stressful ways to get business done.

What’s a Business Mashup and Why Should You Care?

The wikipedia describes a mashup as a “web application that combines data from more than one source into a single integrated tool; an example is the use of cartographic data from Google Maps to add location information to real-estate data from Craigslist, thereby creating a new and distinct web service that was not originally provided by either source.” What does this really mean and how can it help your business? Let me provide some context to more fully answer these questions.

Did you ever notice how different people elicit different qualities in you? You might act and talk (and maybe feel, think) a little different around your brother than your boss. You play video games with your kid but shoot pool with your best friend. You act a little different in an airport security line than at a hockey game. (Well, hopefully a lot different.) Either way, you adjust yourself to mesh with the people you’re with and the situation you’re in. Usually that’s helpful.

And guess what? Other people do the same around you.

Don’t worry, there’s nothing phony about it. We all adapt to each other, play off each other, influence each other, and intuitively collaborate through communication and context on many levels. That’s what helps turn individual human beings into a functioning society. (Or at least, that’s gotten us past bashing each other with clubs, for the most part.)

Your business software now can do something very similar – and that’s likely to make business more creative, productive, intriguing, and just plain fun over the next few years.

Of course, business applications aren’t conscious (no matter how strongly you suspect that Quickbooks is out to get you). But they can exchange information – now better than ever before, especially over the Internet. The product of that exchange can be surprisingly valuable.

Perhaps the coolest and most useful outcome of the often hyped “Web 2.0” era of computing is how new approaches to sharing and displaying information make it possible to create custom “information blends” like the two examples give in the Wikipedia definition. This not only can help you work more effectively and get more done, but also to gain more insight into your business and markets, coordinate better with your colleagues or partners, and spot new opportunities. Kind of like custom-blended coffee, but much more powerful.

The key is to “mash” data, or content from your programs together to create a unified view that is most appropriate to your current needs. That’s why they call it a mashup. It’s really about making all your business programs “play nice” – by your rules, not just theirs.

Of course, you don’t blindly mix all your information together. Rather, you select and blend only the information you need from the programs you use. Ideally, a good business mashup yields relevance, simplicity, usability, and flexibility – without clutter or noise. Well-designed mashups also can save you time and minimize errors by eliminating the need to hunt for information, jump between programs, and re-enter data.

Say you have several business programs that you’d like to blend together: your inventory control system, customer relationship management system, supply-chain extranet, real-time GPS data from trucks, RFID package tracking data, text or audio messaging with your drivers, and Google Maps. You’d like to blend all this information together seamlessly to save money, fuel, time, and stress.

A good mashup would be a unified user interface — it would look like just one program to you. There, you could not only monitor and control specific activities but perhaps also get a constant “read” on important benchmarks: your overall average on-time delivery rate, gas mileage, operating costs, and profit per delivery. You might also add logic to spot patterns that either help or hinder performance.

In short, the mashup would help you grasp in a comfortable way, at any given moment, how well you’re doing and why and all through a single interface. And if your goals change or your company gets acquired (so business systems change), you can just tweak your mashup to roll with those changes.

How do you create a mashup? Do you need to hire a programmer? Not necessarily. Serena Software offers a Web-based environment where you can build your own business mashups using a drag-and-drop interface. Seriously, no coding.

It’s about time your business programs started really cooperating with each other and with you, isn’t it?

BTW, the wikipedia gave the origin of the term Mashup. It originally referred to the practice in pop music (notably hip-hop) of producing a new song by mixing two or more existing pieces.

Welcome to the Serena Business Mashups Blog.

We are excited about the possibilities that mashups bring to business. They allow business teams, themselves, to create workflow applications drawing on multiple data sources without getting into an IT cue. The possibilities unleashed by this new capability are why we started this blog. We want it to serve as a resource center for those interested in these opportunities. It is addressed to the broader market and not limited to our customers or our issues and products. We want to promote the mashup conversation on such topics as the business value, implementation issues, success factors, innovations, future trends, as well as the technology issues. Our goal is to help build the new enterprise, both changing the way people work and the way they create the tools that support their work.

This blog is sponsored by Serena, the provider of business mashups for companies of all shapes and sizes. We will talk about ourselves on occasion, but this conversation is not about us. It is about business mashups. Our Serena web * covers our products and news and we invite you to go there. Our Serena Connect community* serves our customers and we invite you to become one and participate.

Our initial topics are listed under the categories section and we will be adding more as the conversation evolves. These categories serve as an archive into the blog and search is also offered. We plan to build an ongoing resource so we invite you to browse and search our past posts, as well as view our present ones.

This blog is for you to learn more about all things to do with mashups and we invite you to participate through the comment fields on our posts with your feedback, questions, stories, and ideas. We want to learn from you and we look forward to your participation.