chasm comments

I'd like to suggest a third interpretation of how this kind of
innovation is accepted or rejected. A process management interpretation.

The success of ICE depends - solely - on its ability to enter an
*existing* complex of social networks.

This means its success will depend upon getting "permission" to enter
the private - and sometimes scary - social behavior patterns of many
individuals.

This depends on several things:

1. How the idea is presented - or "allowed to be discovered" by the
useer. The wrong presentation can actually scare people, by suddenly
making them think of death, injury, and sadness.

2. How seamless the modification is to use for the existing
social-technology network. Many - most? - cell users do not know how to
program their phones. Especially in the age range that might actually
think an ICE is useful. Most young folks feel immortal.

3. How much word of mouth spreads about the utility of the innovation.
Again - this can be managed with careful attention to social networks.

So - to create a "better moustrap" in most modern innovations, one has
to create a better "solution" - which these days almost certainly means
creating a complex network - not just a product.

If one does not create the complete solution, THEN the "chasm" appears.

The chasm is not an inevitable step in new innovations.

It is almost always the result of not perceiving the full scope of the
(networked) solution one is touting.

I like the practical aspect of putting ICE on the mobile phone—I’m going to put it on mine.

I believe that there’s a bridge or possibly multiple bridges between the better mousetrap and the chasm that might be worth discussing:

If there are network effects – the telephone, MS Word, LinkedIn – the value increases as the technology becomes the standard
The Tipping Point – if the anthropology or sociology of the way that people relate to the technology causes powerful word of mouth by mavens or whatever the names were that Malcolm Gladwell used in The Tipping Point

I don't know anyone who thinks this is a bad idea, but it will only be widespread if it is marketed. They will market it as long as their paramedics run into cases where someone's seriously injured and they have trouble figuring out someone's next of kin. I don't doubt that there will be some comment on ICE when people start trying to identify bloated bodies in the Gulf Coast, though of course most of the people who died don't have cell phones.

As you say, putting this in a cell phone is essentially cost less, so why not? It is like carrying those Medical Bracelets that warn an emergency responder about special medical conditions. Anyone who has had some reason to need that information, either as a victim, or in treating victims, unanimously supports it.

It is a bit harder to understand commercialization, though, since it asks people to slighly modify an entry that people probably already have in their phone. I suppose you could sue a phone company if they were developing some special process that forces people to create this entry when they turn on their phone for the first time - maybe having to pay a trademark to EAN Ltd. is going to undermine the willingness of phone companies to make this easier, and marginally impede its acceptance.

I love this example of a potential innovation. It certainly confirms me in my belief that the need preceeds the innovation. Bob Brotchie, a paramedic with the UK’s East Anglian Ambulance Service, had an intriguing idea in May 2005. If you had an “ICE” listing in your mobile telephone’s contacts list, for “In Case of Emergency”, then a paramedic would know how to get hold of someone important to you in case you were disabled.

Here is the way this would have been tested even before we knew it existed:

Q. Every job has its challenges and frustrations. Please tell us some of yours.

A. “I was reflecting on some of the calls I've attended at the roadside where I had to look through the mobile phone contacts struggling for information”

Q. What would make the frustration go away?

A. If you had an “ICE” listing in your mobile telephone’s contacts list, for “In Case of Emergency”, then a paramedic would know how to get hold of someone important to [the injured] in case [they] were disabled. ... Almost everyone carries a mobile phone now, and with ICE we'd know immediately who to contact and what number to ring.”

This sounds like Communitas on a day-to-day basis.