Usbong: Google's Six Principles of Innovation

Hi everyone,

On the night of August 3, Friday, I got an unexpected email from G | Philippines. As it turns out, I got an invite to the Google event the following day! I made the cut after all! The following are my notes on: "How Google Innovates" and how the principles, the speaker mentioned, can be applied to Usbong.

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6 Principles of Innovation

Speaker: Sebastian Trzcinski-Clément (bit.ly/sebplus)

• Clear mission is important.
• Foster entrepreneurship.
• Speak up (even to your boss).
• Allot 20% for own projects (as long as it's aligned with Google's mission)
• Be open. Share everything.
• Internal: CV, Weekly Summary, Snippets, Roadmap.
• Open Source
• It's all about data, data, data.
• User is key. Money will follow.
• Support community (Google Developers Group)
• Speed does matter.
• launch fast and iterate

Clear mission is important.

What is Usbong's clear mission?

Usbong's mission is to help people create their own web-mobile systems to make their life, and the lives of the people that matter to them, more meaningful, more peaceful - HAPPIER. =)

Why is it important to have a clear mission for Usbong?

A clear mission is important because it acts as a lighthouse that guides the company's people so that they are all headed in the same direction, no matter what part of the company they are working in and what their role may be.

Instead of each person innovating individually, the combined innovative effort of the Usbong community is more than the sum of its parts.

Foster entrepreneurship.

How is speaking up to the boss foster entrepreneurship?

Allowing people to speak up even to their boss, reduces attitudes governed by hierarchy, so that people can discuss and debate constructively without fear of reproach from the higher ups. It is in this manner that great ideas bubble up.

What are Usbong's plans to foster entrepreneurship?

One of our long-term goals is to foster entrepreneurship by:

• allowing just about anyone to use the Usbong platform to create their own trees,
• upload them to Usbong's Forest in the Sky hub, and
• allow people to download them paid or for free.

Be open. Share everything.

Usbong is open source, under the Apache v2.0 license. Every week, an Usbong update is sent to the mailing list, as well as through popular social networking sites.

It's all about data, data, data.

We use data such as the number of people who have downloaded Usbong and have created accounts to gauge how relevant our open source platform is to people. We also use end-user feedback to continuously improve our products and services so as to make it even more relevant and get us closer to our mission.

User is key. Money will follow.

We believe that building a community is the key that will make Usbong successful. We also believe that more than the technology or the code, what's even more important is the relationships that we are able to form with people and our partner organizations.

This is why instead of keeping the code base proprietary, we have opened it up for people to use and learn from, so that we may be able to continue working with our partners that promote Free and Open Source Software.

Speed does matter.

We in Usbong believe in continuous iterative-incremental improvement. We use Agile Software Development practices, and value end-user feedback.

At least once every month, we update our open source code at Google Code based on a priority list of suggestions, concerns, as well as feature requests from people who have expressed interest in Usbong. The higher the number of people clamoring for a particular feature or bug-fix, the higher its priority becomes.

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Well, folks, those are the 6 Principles. If you have questions, concerns, suggestions, and the like, do feel free to get in touch with us via the usbong-users Google group. We would love to hear from you! Maraming salamat! Daghang salamat! Thank you very much!

Mike (Founder, Usbong) 

Diane (Editor/Evangelist, Usbong)

Usbong = Context -> Tree -> Mobile Application + Web Server

About Usbong 

"Usbong" in Filipino is both a noun and a verb. As a noun, it can mean "a bud, a sprout, a shoot". As a verb, it means "to sprout, to grow, to develop". In Bisaya, it means "to burgeon, to grow, to expand, and to flourish."

For us (and hopefully for you too), "Usbong" also means an open-source platform that allows people to create their own web-mobile data collection tool to help them solve problems in their own contexts and ultimately make them and the people they care about HAPPIER.

Applications 

Usbong can be applied to several contexts, which means that if used appropriately, can facilitate in creating an impact in the lives of people. The idea is that as long as the target context uses some form of:

• flowchart 
• clinical pathway 
• step-by-step guide cookbook recipe, or even 
• a branching storybook (ala choose-your-own-adventure) 

that can be turned into a decision tree, the Usbong platform should be able to allow people to transform that into a mobile application by putting together components (e.g. text inputs, checkboxes, radiobuttons, camera, voice recorders) using a spreadsheet or a Graphical User Interface (GUI).

Uses 

Some of the applications that are using Usbong include:

• Education 
• Environment 
• Healthcare 
• pediatric care (using the Intergrated Management of Childhood Illness (IMCI)) 
• telerehab (as a digital survey form to gather patient history of stroke in the family or signs of stroke prior to the experiment) 
• multilingual medical triage (using telephone triage protocols) 
• positive psychology (as a survey/evaluation tool to measure happiness)

Data captured from the mobile device running Usbong are stored in the SD Card as .CSV, .JPG, and .3GP.

Data can also be sent to a web server running on traditional servers or low-cost and low power-consuming devices like the plug computer.

Alternatively, data can be sent to Gmail, G+, Facebook, Twitter, Evernote, Dropbox, among many others. 

Multilingual 

Interestingly, besides English, Usbong can display East Asian characters, as well as speak in English and Filipino (modified Spanish Accent).

Open Source 

At present, we are developing Usbong with the Ateneo Innovation Center (AIC), along with partners in government, industry, and academe, but we would love to work with people from different parts of the world too.

https://sites.google.com/site/theusbongproject/