Somvid - Helping Consumers Buy Products that Reflect their Values; How Google's Mobile...

Somvid >> consumers >> Helping Consumers Buy Products that Reflect their Values; How Google's Mobile...

Helping Consumers Buy Products that Reflect their Values; How Google's Mobile...

Google Tech TalksFebruary, 8 2008ABSTRACTInternet searching and advertising increasingly plays a role in consumer decisions and purchases, yet pertinent information for making value-judgments is currently awkward to ferret out and certainly not universally accessible or useful. There is rarely a feedback loop aligning vendor or manufacturer's environmental, social or governance policies with a shopper's values, so shoppers, over time, rarely cause industries to change their behavior.There needs to be a way for shoppers to aim their purchasing power at achieving social values of highest regional priority. There needs to be a way to accumulate and redeem"social values rewards". What's missing is timely and impactful analysis of a candidate purchases' impact on the Shopper's family, region and planet (expressed according to their values), so that the purchaser can more easily make informed purchasing decisions.With some modifications to Google ads and Google product search, Google could solidify the feedback loop and help consumers, by their actions, build a greener and better world.Speaker: Bruce CahanBruce B. Cahan, President Urban Logic, Inc. (a nonprofit organization)Email: bcahan@urbanlogic.orgBruce Cahan is an Ashoka Fellow, a social entrepreneur, a non-residential fellow of Stanford Law School's Center for Internet and Society, a lawyer, and a banker.In 1989, a steam pipe exploded outside his apartment building, spraying the neighborhood with 220 pounds of asbestos wrapping in an 18-story geyser of steam for several hours. After that, Bruce foresaw New York City's need for geospatial preparedness, and founded Urban Logic, a New York nonprofit, to make America's cities safer and sustainable. Bruce convinced New York to fund and build a multi-agency GIS basemap.As a bond lawyer, he found $20+ million in the City's capital budget to pay for its GIS utility.NYC's basemap was completed just 6 months before the tragic events of September 11th, 2001, and aided in coordinated response and recovery. In the months after September 11th, Bruce joined others at the City's Command Center to organize and staff its Emergency Mapping and Data Center. His team supplied the Mayor's Office, Fire, Police, EMS, military, public health, environment, news and other groups with up-to-date maps of rapidly changing conditions at Ground Zero and throughout Manhattan. Bruce was the catalyst for deploying OpenGIS'SensorWeb project to monitor environmental conditions citywide, and other innovations.Taking 9/11's lessons, Bruce designed the federal OMB's I-Team Initiative to strategically plan and implement spatial readiness across 49 states. Bruce's knowledge of finance, law and organizational barriers to spatial awareness and urban innovation comes from researching and writing major studies for the federal government, including . Financing the National Spatial Data Infrastructure (FGDC 2000) . Aligning Investments in Environmental Monitoring and Management Information Systems (EPA 2002) . The Value Proposition for GeoSpatial One Stop (OMB 2004) . A Regional Portfolio Investor's Toolkit (USGS 2006)In 2005, Bruce moved to Silicon Valley to organize two market-driven mechanisms that support urban sustainability. The first he calls the Means MeterTM, a tool for socially-purposeful consumers to buy products that reflect their values. The second is a bank that amplifies the sustainable impacts of Means MeterTM consumers and their vendors. The bank will reward choices that grow Sustainable ResiliencyTM. Bruce's bank would serve consumers, businesses, NGOs and governments. The bank would offer credit, insurance, investment and merchant banking services, and scale pricing and interest rates based on each customer's impact on Sustainable ResiliencyTM.Bruce graduated from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and Temple Law School. Bruce practiced law for 10 years with Weil, Gotshal&Manges in New York, where he specialized in structuring and negotiating complex corporate, bond, creditor's rights and real estate finance and ot...

Uploaded: February 12, 2008 at 10:13 am

Author: googletechtalks

Length: 00:50:06

Rating: 4.5555553

Views: 5283

Tags: engedu talk education techtalk googletechtalks google techtalks talks

Email to a friend

Video Comments:

Fyrsilxg (February 20, 2009 at 12:33 pm)

I really liked your channel and this video. If you need any help getting this video exposed I use a site called tubeviews.(net) It has really helped like 20 of my main videos get to the top in position. Its nice.I like what i watched.

jackjaaa (May 5, 2008 at 5:10 am)

While I was searching for googles videos in youtube I found this Helping Consumers Buy Products that Reflect their Values; How Google's Mobile... video which is full of great related information, see my channel for more free profitable unique information.

coastwalker (March 4, 2008 at 3:55 pm)

Advertising currently sets the criteria for the consumer for motor vehicles - the choice is restricted to "buy this or you will kill your family" "buy this or you wont attract members of the opposite sex" "buy this or you will look poor" These are not the only criteria that consumers may have. When you try to research the characteristics of motor vehicles though, it is quite difficult to discover anything about them except those things which fear based advertising is concerned with.

coastwalker (March 4, 2008 at 3:54 pm)

Oh, I agree with the end goal of enabling consumers to make their purchasing decisions based on criteria which are important to them. I think most providers of goods and services would be interested in getting closer to their consumers through such an approach too. There are some roadblocks of vested interests which will resist this for a while yet. Another example apart from the overpricing of data to mobile devices is the advertising industry which is in a deadlock with existing business.

brucecahan (March 3, 2008 at 9:54 pm)

A classic Catch-22: Put robust, persistent applications on mobile phones, and the price for data services charged for occasional use should drop.A clarification: The material I presented at this Google Tech Talk featured a mobile approach. However, the desktop experience would be far more granular and exploratory. In other words, I am pursuing mobile, kiosk and desktop settings for socially-purposeful consumerism.

coastwalker (March 2, 2008 at 12:25 pm)

none of this is anywhere near happening whilst the mobile phone industry continues to overcharge for data. The only way a mobile internet can possibly happen is if independant WiMax network suppliers takes the market out from under the mobile industry. Remember how hard it was to break the telecoms monopoly and get new services onto POTS?

KimberlyHood (February 19, 2008 at 3:45 am)

As Mr. Cahan mentioned, there are affordable data devices in the market today. PDA's, Smart Phones, the AT&T iPhone, just to name a few. The key is to have an unlimited data plan, so not only do you have unlimited access to the internet, you alos will not be bombarded with overages in kilobite charges.

brucecahan (February 15, 2008 at 6:40 pm)

Our family uses ATT's unlimited data plan for the iPhones in the US. With more entrants into the global market space, UK mobile Web data rates should rise in speed, and drop in price.

tersse (February 15, 2008 at 6:29 pm)

sorry but that means nothing to me, what i mean is it costs as much for 1 hour phone web connection (about £7) as i use in a week at home, and i can get 8 meg download speed, and see a whole page at a time no scrolling, why would i want to pay that price, its only for ppl that get it paid by their company, not a normal user of a mobile phone, we are years away from cost effective mobile phone web browsing.

brucecahan (February 15, 2008 at 3:53 pm)

I have a financial model that includes using an ethical bank to enhance financial viability.I agree socially-purposeful consumerism should be an option for all Web platforms.My point was mobile screen real estate is precious. To be meaningful consumer tools, mobile search can rank choices from multiple perspectives, including the social and ethical impacts resulting from buying a product, as such impacts are felt regionally and globally, and experienced through affinity groups.

tersse (February 12, 2008 at 8:49 pm)

too expencive, not financialy viable for most users, screne is too small, and what can i do on a phone i cant wait till i get home and do in comfort with better speed.