Jeff De Cagna is chief strategist and founder of Principled Innovation LLC, and editor-at-large of SmartBlog Insights. Widely recognized as an association community thought leader, Jeff is the executive producer of the Principled Innovation Blog and Podcast, and also posts on Twitter as @pinnovation.

If you have feedback on SmartBlog Insights, Jeff can be reached at jeff@principledinnovation.com.

Last month, I released my Top Ten 2010 Trends for Associations, and I am publishing a series of posts on SmartBlog Insights in which I will discuss two related trends and their implications for associations.  The focus of this post, the second in the series, is the content challenge.

• Content Conflict — For the last few years, the conflicting interests of association content consumers, creators, publishers and financial supporters have played out both online and offline.  Continued changes in technology and expectations will intensify these conflicts going forward.

Association publishing –  including books, journals, magazines and other print resources — has been in a period of significant upheaval for nearly a decade and a half.  Open access to content has been a front and center business challenge for association publishers since the 1990s and the long-term sustainability of advertising-driven print publications is an open question for associations, especially during down economic cycles.  With new technology tools and delivery platforms going mainstream, 2010 may well be the year in which the competing interests of content stakeholders come to a head.

In late January, Apple announced the introduction of the iPad, a touch screen tablet-computing device with built-in Web access that will run current iPhone apps as well as iPad-specific apps now in development.  The iPad is just one of many tablet devices hitting the market in 2010, as well as several new e-book readers, that will provide content publishers, creators and consumers with powerful new options to more easily deliver and access rich and immersive content experiences in a timely and convenient fashion.  For association publishers, the time to rethink current business models and experiment with fresh approaches, including what I call “mobile magazining,” is now.

• Curate to Innovate — One of the most significant innovation opportunities for associations is content curation that helps their stakeholders make sense, make meaning and make better decisions around their personal and professional challenges.

According to some estimates, the amount of information on the Internet will double every 72 hours by 2013.  As content creators and publishers, associations contribute to this staggering rate of information growth.  As content aggregators, associations play a role in finding and organizing at least some of that material for their members.  But neither of these functions wholly addresses the core problem today’s association stakeholders must confront:  how to manage their finite human attention in the face of nearly infinite content creation and almost unlimited access.

With this problem in mind, associations must begin to take seriously their emerging role as content curators.  From my point of view, content curation is an intentional and careful effort to identify meaningful content and place it a rich and valuable context that supports understanding and enables action.  To be effective content curators, however, associations cannot simply pick and choose information that fits with their existing worldview.  Providing “deep support” through content curation demands the inclusion of a full range of perspectives, including the unorthodox, unpopular and controversial.

Figuring out the content challenge will be critical to the development of successful business models for associations in the years ahead.  As part of this strategic conversation, association leaders must understand that, in many ways, the future of content will bear little if any resemblance to its past.  Engaging in this crucial conversation with a future orientation is essential to long-term success.

Jeff is leading a three-part Webinar series, “The Future of Associating is Mobile: Powerful Strategies from Third Screen Success” beginning March 5.  For more information or to register, please visit http://bit.ly/thirdscreensuccess.

Previous Top Ten 2010 Trends post: Mobile technologies
Next Top Ten 2010 Trends post: Intelligent decisions by design

Jeff De Cagna is chief strategist and founder of Principled Innovation LLC, and editor-at-large of SmartBlog Insights. Widely recognized as an association community thought leader, Jeff is the executive producer of the Principled Innovation Blog and Podcast, and also posts on Twitter as @pinnovation. If you have feedback on SmartBlog Insights, Jeff can be reached at jeff@principledinnovation.com.

Earlier this month, I released my Top Ten 2010 Trends for Associations.  Over the next few weeks, I will be publishing a series of posts on SmartBlog Insights in which I will discuss two related trends, and their implications for associations.  The focus of this first post is mobile technologies.

• Mobile Everything ⎯ The explosive growth in mobile technologies will continue to accelerate in the year ahead, challenging associations to rethink every aspect of how they relate to stakeholders, create and deliver value and perform work.

Through the end of 2009, Apple sold more than 75 million mobile devices (both iPhones and iPod Touches) worldwide.  While many of us have been carrying Blackberries or other mobile phones for quite some time, the iPhone and, more recently, devices running Google’s Android operating system, have shifted irrevocably our expectations for the mobile platform and created exciting and potentially game-changing business model innovation opportunities for associations.

To capitalize on these opportunities, associations need to give immediate and serious thought to how they will establish a meaningful presence on their members’ “third screens.”  In addition to serving as a platform for engagement, mobile devices are personal access points to the rapidly growing public and private networks to which association stakeholders belong.  For example, Facebook reported late last year that 65 million of its active users are accessing the service through mobile means.  As an intrinsically social technology, the mobile platform must be fully integrated into the broader set of social experiences so many associations are striving to create for their members in digital space.

• Mobile Professional Culture and Practice ⎯ The introduction of new smartphones, as well as other mobile and highly portable computing devices, will put in the hands of very capable professionals many powerful new tools that will change the way they do their work.

Arguably the most disruptive development in the recent evolution of the mobile platform is the emergence of the “apps economy.”  According to technology consultancy Gartner, cumulative mobile app store revenues totaled more than $4 billion in 2009, and are expected to approach $7 billion in 2010.  But perhaps the greater long-term strategic impact for associations is how mobile apps will innovate the very nature of how work gets done in the industries, professions and fields they serve over the next decade and beyond.

Nowhere is the burgeoning professional impact of apps more evident than in health care.  In November 2009, New York Times personal technology columnist David Pogue reported that there were more than 7,000 medical apps in the iPhone App Store, including apps physicians can use to review patient information, make diagnoses and prescribe medication.  Not only do these apps reduce the possibility of medical errors, they make it easier for doctors and other health care professionals to place greater focus on their patients.  And with more than 140,000 iPhone apps overall, and growing app development for Android, Blackberry and other platforms, associations far beyond the health care sector can expect the rapid arrival of powerful new tools that will change both professional culture and practice, with clear implications for certification, professional development and research.

Without question, mobile will be a major topic of, hopefully, generative conversation across the association community throughout 2010.  How will you make sure that conversation occurs inside your organization?

Jeff is leading a three-part webinar series, “The Future of Associating is Mobile: Powerful Strategies from Third Screen Success” beginning on March 5.  For more information or to register, please visit http://bit.ly/thirdscreensuccess.

Next Top Ten 2010 Trends post:  Content conflict and Curate to innovate

Jeff De Cagna is chief strategist and founder of Principled Innovation LLC, and editor-at-large of SmartBlog Insights. Widely recognized as an association community thought leader, Jeff is the executive producer of the Principled Innovation Blog and Podcast, and also posts on Twitter as @pinnovation.

If you have feedback on SmartBlog Insights, Jeff can be reached at jeff@principledinnovation.com.

If you attended ASAE & The Center’s Annual Meeting in Toronto, you heard considerable talk about the need for associations to pursue innovation. This message was certainly music to my ears, since I’ve been pushing our community to get serious about innovation for a very long time. For better or for worse, it took a once-in-a-lifetime economic decline to expose the deeper flaws in our business models, and create a sense of urgency to identify new forms of value for our stakeholders that will translate into sustainable revenue streams going forward.

Despite the painfully obvious need for associations to begin innovating right away, however, many leaders in our community are still not sure where to begin. To help jumpstart your association’s innovation efforts, here is a rapid launch strategy you can begin pursuing immediately.

•Focus on who: Innovation is a social process that depends on people working collaboratively to identify, develop and nurture creative ideas. In the long run, your association will want to involve a broad cross-section of stakeholders in the innovation process, but to get going now, begin by pulling together a “hot group” composed of a diverse set of contributors who bring a vibrant mix of skills and experiences to the table. Keep in mind that the opportunity to work on innovation should not be limited to the right-brain creative types. Successful innovation will tap into the association’s “whole brain,” not just one part of it.

•Focus on what: Innovation comes in many forms, some of which will have more enduring impact on your association’s success, such as innovation in strategy-making, governing and business models. As you begin to build your association’s innovation capacity, however, it makes most sense to emphasize areas of innovation that are less complex and more likely to produce short-term results. Focus the attention of your association’s hot group on product, service and experience ideas that solve current or emerging member problems, and challenge the group to explore radical, disquieting and even dangerous ideas as a springboard for greater creativity.

•Focus on how: Innovation does not need to be extremely expensive or risky, but it does require consistent investment over time, along with a willingness to integrate failure as a learning strategy. In the early stages of your association’s innovation efforts, placing narrow funding limits on your hot group can lead to more creative thinking, while keeping innovation investment levels manageable. Challenge the group to embrace simplicity as a form of innovation by developing ideas that require no more than $500-$1,000 in funding for an initial prototype or test. This is an example of a “generative constraint” that can act as a catalyst for innovation.

Innovation is very much a part of the future of the association community, borne out of the dual imperatives of profound necessity and enormous opportunity. As a leader in your association, you cannot wait for “the right time” to begin the work of innovation. There is no right time. The time is right now.

Join Jeff for his high-impact Webinar series, The New Look of Associating: Innovation Strategies from the Social Web, beginning Sept. 25. To learn more and to register, please visit http://tinyurl.com/newlookofassociating.

Jeff De Cagna is chief strategist and founder of Principled Innovation LLC, and editor-at-large of SmartBlog Insights. Widely recognized as an association community thought leader, Jeff is the executive producer of the Principled Innovation Blog and Podcast, and also posts on Twitter as @pinnovation.

If you have feedback on SmartBlog Insights, Jeff can be reached at jeff@principledinnovation.com.

On my recent trip to London, I picked up a copy of the UK edition of Wired Magazine at Heathrow Airport. The cover story is a superb article about Google, written by the magazine’s editor, David Rowan, and based on interviews he conducted with Google executives, including CEO Eric Schmidt and co-founder Sergey Brin.

After years of studying Google, what I find remarkable about this article is the clarity with which the company’s most senior leaders articulate the core beliefs that guide how they think about their work. As an association volunteer or staff leader, you should ask whether your organization’s point of view on its profession or industry, as well as the association’s role within it, is as well-developed and robust as these “Google rules.”

· Google doesn’t need to control everything: Asked about the possibility that Google is losing ground to Twitter in the area of real-time search, Eric Schmidt bristles:

“I disagree with the premise of the question. We do not operate under the Microsoft rules – that Microsoft has to control everything. Twitter is a very important emergent social phenomenon. It’s very successful. And we think that’s good, because it means people are spending more and more time online. I don’t see the negative.”

Associations are still after control in an environment in which little, if any, actually exists, even for Google. But instead of worrying about how to assert control over Twitter, Google takes a broader view, recognizing the strategic value of an unconventional competitor’s success to the entire system of players on the Web, including (and especially) customers.

How would your association’s work be different if less control were treated as an asset rather than a liability?

· Google doesn’t plan its way to success: Every association leader should read carefully this terrific quote from Eric Schmidt, and reflect on its deeper implications for their organizations:

“We don’t have a big picture. We don’t have a five-year plan, we don’t have a two-year plan, we don’t have a one-year plan. We have a mission and a strategy, and the mission is… you know, [to organise] all the world’s information. And the strategy is to do it through innovation. It doesn’t bother us if something doesn’t work. Because we understand that something else will work.”

As a company, Google pursues its mission and strategy with a mindset of discovery, and a confidence in its ability to learn from failure. Given the enormity of the company’s mission, and its nearly limitless ambition to solve big problems, no other approach really makes sense. Associations that want to continue as impact players in their industries and professions should think seriously about whether they are able to embrace this way of doing business.

How would your association’s work be different if strategic success were viewed as a journey, rather than a destination?

· Google doesn’t need to be evil: Without question, the three most misunderstood words ever uttered by and about Google are “don’t be evil.” In the Wired UK article, Eric Schmidt offers this perspective on the often-misinterpreted phrase:

“…Google is disrupting existing interest groups…And they will throw “Don’t be evil” at you. “The ‘Don’t be evil’ is a signpost for us about how we should make values-based decisions,” he replies, “and we use as our primary goal the benefit to end users. That’s who we serve.”

Google was founded on core principles, and so it isn’t at all surprising to hear the CEO talk about making decisions on the basis of values that are important to the company and its leaders, and focused on the needs of its customers. Unfortunately, not all associations make decisions in the same way, sometimes allowing the expedient choice to overrule the wise one.

How would your association’s work be different if strategic decision-making were guided by a set of core beliefs, principles or values?

Google is an unconventional company, and I have always believed associations can learn a great deal from its unique ways of thinking and doing. My challenge to association leaders is to reflect on these rules and questions, and have serious conversations about them within your organizations. Be sure to read the entire Google article in Wired UK … it is well worth your time. And please join the discussion of this topic by posting a comment.

Editor-at-Large note: This is my first post to SmartBlog Insights, and I am especially grateful to my SmartBrief colleagues, J.P. Moery and Jessica Strelitz, for inviting me to serve as editor-at-large. This role means more to me than a picture and bio on the sidebar. By serving in this capacity, I accept a measure of responsibility for all of the words that are published here, and I urge you to contact me with your feedback on how we’re doing. You can reach me at jeff@principledinnovation.com. I look forward to hearing from you!

Oh, and one more thing: In the interest of full disclosure, you should know that I own a small number of shares in Google, emphasis on the phrase “small number.”