Diapers, paper towels, washing power and the like have been tough candidates to adopt into the online sales space. Shipping costs have added costs making online ordering unappealing. But both Amazon and P&G understand collaborative innovation better than most.

Those who have attended any of my talks or been subjected to my overly enthusiastic ranting on collaboration, know my passion for the topic of cities. I fervently believe that citizens can fix broken cities and citizen collaboration can create magic in any city.

Ever thought about a collaborative era business built on collaboration with a crowd that is really just saying ‘thanks for the great service’? I recently came across exactly that. Sitting in my office, having created a great presentation with awesome images, and ready to press the send button, I glanced at size and realised it was 43.3mbs. Clearly, while wonderfully creative, it was just too damn big!

Twenty years ago, I heard a statistic, which was astounding to me: Knowledge (everything that is known) doubles every twenty-five years. This was at the early stages of the Internet in South Africa, when connections were slow (the standing joke at the time was that www stood for world wide wait) and mobile phones were just that – devices used to make phone calls only. Internet access was restricted to computers.

When googling if that statistic is still relevant, guess what the general consensus says? ‘Knowledge doubles every 12 months, soon to be every 12 hours’

In 1983, Harley-Davidson faced extinction for the second time in 20 years. Twenty-five years later, the company boasted a top-50 global brand valued at $7.8 billion. Central to the company’s turnaround, and to its subsequent success, was Harley’s commitment to building a brand community: a group of ardent consumers organised around the lifestyle, activities, and ethos of the brand.