There is a wonderful Harold Innis quote about the impact of technology that speaks volumes about our changing times. He said that “changes in communications technology invariably have three kinds of affects. They affect our culture by changing the structure of our interests (the things thought about), by changing the character of our symbols (the things thought with) and by changing the nature of community (the arena in which thoughts are developed).”

It’s a brilliant summarization of what’s going on today in marketing, as the digital arena has taken us from messaging at people to having conversations with them. The niche communities that have emerged are enabling a new long tail of interests. And interactivity is changing the very nature of the way we think, as we move from a geography of knowledge to intelligence that is organic, not bounded by spacial constraints.

Think about it. How can you take advantage of changes in interests, symbols and community? It’s the next generation of branding.

Wired magazine has called time of death on Second Life. As many have been crowing for months, while Second Life has been a media darling and achieved a lot of first looks, it’s simply not a place where the masses return. Islands are empty. Is this the end of virtual worlds?

No way. Virtual worlds are here to stay, even if Second Life isn’t the eventual winner in the race. We will almost certainly incorporate virtual worlds into our lives in the future, for entertainment and for utility. We will work and meet in virtual worlds (the next generation conference call), prototype products, network, and create new, unique experiences.

Just as the dot-com bust didn’t hearken the end of the internet, virutality won’t die, even if Second Life does. We’ve all got big virtual futures ahead of us. Believe it!

Can you feel it?  The UGC (User Generated Content) backlash is beginning, and it feels so familiar.  It’s 2000 all over again. 

When the dot com bubble burst in April 2000, people misunderstood the nature of the shakeout.  While companies that had no real business reason for being went under (yes, Pets.com, I’m talking to you), the internet as an underlying vehicle for distributing content remained healthy and vibrant.  it didn’t die, as many expected.  The ‘net remained vital, it was just the businesses built on top of it that went bust. Entrepreneurs and established companies jumped quickly into the fray…learned…retooled…and came back with more viable, more grounded business offerings.

We’re in the midst of the same sort of high decibel shakeout in the world of UGC.  With the advent of YouTube, companies have capriciously jumped on user-generated commercials as a way to connect with their consumers, demonstrate credibility and cool, and perhaps most importantly, elbow out expensive ad agencies by letting their users do it themselves.  And for the most part, UGC commercials haven’t been breakthrough, nor have they generated buzz, nor have they reinvented the brands as “consumer run”.   So now, many big companies are questioning the fundamental value of UGC.  If it’s not a Diet Coke/Mento’s geyser, is it really worth it?

The answer is absolutely 100% YES.  Stop thinking about UGC as commericals and start thinking of it as any content created by your consumers.  It’s not just video, it’s blogs, MySpace pages, Flickr photo collections, conversations on message boards and forums.   UGC is a vehicle for developing a deeper understanding of your consumers - their motivations, their headset, their passions, their language, their artifacts.  What do they love?  What do they hate?

UGC serves us an incredible gift, heretofore unprecedented in the world of brand and consumer research.  Our consumers are putting their hearts & their ideas out for us to discover.  They are allowing for us to eavesdrop in their world.  We can find brand evanglists, extreme consumers and lapsed users, and navigate their worlds as never before.  We can listen silently or join the conversation.

UGC even guides us with product hacks that can open up a new world of innovation.  It connects us to users who care enough about our products to talk about them, critique them, improve them, evangelize them, identify with them.  It’s a treasure trove of insights.

If you are thinking of UGC only as video advertising, you’re missing the boat.   It’s time to embrace UGC, not trash it.  UGC is the best tool you’ve got going to connecting with consumers and understanding your brand.

Logitech has done a great job over the past several years innovating their way out of commodity computer accessories categories. With a focus on ergonomics, design and usability, Logitech is adding value to a price-driven industry and winning over consumers and corporate buyers with their valued-added peripherals.

This one has to be their coolest innovation. The Logitech IO2 digital pen is a system for capturing handwritten notes - up to 40 pages at a time - and seamlessly, autmatically translating them to your computer in typed form:

“The pen is used in exactly the same way as a ballpoint pen. You activate the pen by removing the cap, and deactivate it by replacing the cap. There are no extra steps required. Simply write down your information just as you would with pen and paper-up to 40 pages at a time. When you write with the pen, a tiny camera with an optical sensor captures your work and registers the pen´s movements, while a processor digitizes your words and images. After placing the pen in the cradle, all your information gets transferred to your PC or on a network server. “

What an idea - finding new areas of frustration with today’s technological options and fitting into consumers habits and preferences, rather than requiring people to change to fit the technology. It’s brilliant.

Think about all of the places and ways we work for our technology, not the other way around. Being held hostage by short battery lives and huddling near sockets. Using fingers to dial small cell-phone buttons. Carrying multiple pieces of technology — laptop, blackberry, cell phone, iPod, camera - rather than a single truly functional solution. Loading and reloading contacts that don’t easily transfer. And on, and on…

How can your company innovate to solve the real pain points, not just provide a bandaid approach to a problem technology? And if you’re not in the tech business, how can you find and solve the true pain points created by your product or business model?

True innovation is difficult for most companies to accomplish, yet it’s exactly what customers seek. Disruptive innovations that solve problems and fulfill real needs. The problems and needs are out there…try thinking beyond the structural boundaries and focus on what your consumers really want, not just what they’re being offered.

Today’s NYT’s has an article about NetFlix moving into streaming videos. Reed Hastings, the CEO, says “…(the) DVD is not a hundred-year format.”

While untimely obsolescence is a prevailing assumption in technology and media, it’s not something consumer package goods manufacturers factor into their equations. In the technology arena, the DVD is merely looked upon as a vehicle to deliver entertainment or information. Another format may be equally viable or better.

Why not try approaching your product development that way.? Is cereal necessarily a hundred-year format or simply one means of delivering morning nutrition? (Shifting consumer behavior indicates the latter.) Are carbonated soft drinks the only format for delivering refreshment? Are liquids the only vehicle for delivering hydration? Why are toothpaste and toothbrush the only format we’ve got for delivering dental hygiene?

What if we all approached our product delivery systems as soon-to-be obsolete? What if we all had to make step change improvements every 5+ years? We’d approach our day-to-day business with an urgent need to innovate. Not for stock price growth. For survival.

It’s a new canvas for innovation. Try it.