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On Harvard Biz Review (@HarvardBiz), Michael Schrage observes that “the following 6 ideas emerged this past year as powerful ‘innovation invitations.’ They seem certain to intensify in global power and influence. They'll be sources of — and resources for — innovation differentiation this coming year.”

1. The Slacktivism Co-Opt: As much a term of derision as global sociological phenomenon, slacktivism has emerged as social media’s way of making support for a cause as easy as a re-tweet or clicking Facebook’s “like” button....

2. Counting on Self-Quantifiers for Growth: Mobile, digital, and networked devices have created a global sub-culture of self-quantifiers — that is, individuals who rigorously count every step they take, every calorie they eat, every minute they sleep, every email/text they send/receive, and every schedule change they make....

3. Gerontabletification: Mobile phones are too small; their screens too tiny and keyboards too minute. But tablets have emerged as ideal media platforms for those requiring larger fonts and bigger keys. The iPad has ceased to be a symbol of youth and vitality. It’s now how silver haired executives — and 75 year old grandmas — read the news, manage their email and play games with the kids....

4. Globalizing Grand Challenges: Over the past decade, America has been a leader in the design, development, and marketing of competitions and prizes for technical innovation. But it's time the so-called emerging economies stepped up....

5. Handheld Augmented Reality: Who, or what, will be the Foursquare of Augmented Visualization and Interaction?....What's next is the first wave of mobile devices becoming augmented reality viewers for their users. Expect to see QR code/augmented reality mashups as a 2012 investment to facilitate the virtual transition....

6. The Greenlash Arrives: Is there a Greenlash emerging that’s pushing populations worldwide to reconsider so-called fossil fuels as better, safer, and more reliable than their renewable counterparts? There's little doubt that they’re proving to be cheaper....The green promises of eco-tech are taking longer and costing more than many of its champions promised. As energy-dependent economies chug along with growth far lower than expected or desired, green options are looking rather gray....

Read this in full.

Bookmark and daily use Somersault’s (@smrsault) SomersaultNOW online dashboard, including our Innovation tab.

In the September/October 2011 issue of Outreach (@Outreach), Bobby Gruenewald (@bobbygwald), pastor and innovation leader at YouVersion (@YouVersion), offered trend analyses to help church leaders be more effective in 2012:

1. Trend: Permanence to Mobility. Question: If people are increasingly mobile now, how does this shape the opportunities we offer to engage them in ministry?

2. Trend: Consumer to Producer/Consumer. Question: How can we move content creation beyond just our team and harness the creativity of the church?

3. Trend: Content to Conversation. Question: How can we build conversation around our teaching and what’s happening in our church?

4. Trend: Programmed to On-Demand. Question: How can we make what we do more adaptable? How can we go from one-size-fits-all programming to something that is highly customizable—when and where people need it?

Read this in full.

Bookmark and use daily Somersault’s (@smrsault) SomersaultNOW online dashboard; especially the Leadership and Innovation tabs.

On digital book world (@DigiBookWorld), editorial director Jeremy Greenfield (@JDGsaid) spoke with book industry experts, observers, and players to get their opinion on what’s ahead for us in this fast changing industry:

1. We will see more self-published best-sellers next year with an exponential rise in the number of million-selling authors.

2. Large publishing companies will go through major restructurings, creating new positions and redundancies of all shapes and sizes.

3. Amazon will come out with a larger tablet with an 8.9-inch screen and it will be priced at $299 or lower.

4. Apple will come out with a smaller iPad at a reduced price.

5. Sony will get a second life in the e-reader game when Pottermore launches in the Spring.

6. Literary agencies will engage in a campaign to communicate the value of their services to the book industry.

7. Authors will become disenchanted with the rights they sign away to publishers. Shorter and more flexible copyright terms will become more attractive to authors.

8. The standard ebook royalty from major publishing houses will rise next year and will escalate with increased sales.

9. Standards of what an app is and what a book is will change and apps will eventually be sold in the iBookstore.

10. More publishing companies will form in-house transmedia groups.

Read this in full.

Over on paidContent (@paidContent), Laura Hazard Owen (@laurahazardowen) writes “What’s Coming in 2012: Book Publishing,” part of the comprehensive series on the topic of all content, Coming in 2012.

·         Amazon and Barnes & Noble make a deal, sort of.

·         Ebook pricing will shift to quality-focused debates.

·         One big-six publisher will try a subscription scheme.

Read this in full.

And Noelle Skodzinski (@NoelleSki), editor of Publishing Executive (@pubexec), presents the results of a survey of her magazine’s readers concerning

·         the top 10 challenges publishing executives are facing,

·         the top 11 growth areas publishers are seeing, and

·         the top 11 publishing technologies/solutions for which publishers will be shopping in 2012.

Read this in full.

Stay current with news about the publishing world by bookmarking Somersault’s (@smrsault) SomersaultNOW online dashboard.

Co.Design (@FastCoDesign) editor Belinda Lanks (@BelindaLanks) has selected the following essays as a way of sparking #innovation in the coming year:

·         What Made Steve Jobs So Great? by Cliff Kuang (@cliffkuang)

·         4 Ways To Spot Markets Ripe For Disruption by Luke Williams (@LukeGWilliams)

·         The 6 Pillars Of Steve Jobs's Design Philosophy by Cliff Kuang (@cliffkuang)

·         There Are 3 Types Of Innovation. Here's How To Manage Them by Conrad Wai (@sventured)

·         Why Do B-Schools Still Teach The Famed 4Ps Of Marketing, When 3 Are Dead? by Jens Martin Skibsted (@jmskibsted) and Rasmus Bech Hansen (@rasbech)

·         The 3 Biggest Barriers To Innovation, And How To Smash Them by Luke Williams (@LukeGWilliams)

·         Why Do We Hold Fast To Losing Strategies? by Tim Harford (@TimHarford)

·         Branding Is About Creating Patterns, Not Repeating Messages by Marc Shillum (@threepress)

·         Wanna Create A Great Product? Fail Early, Fail Fast, Fail Often by Jeremy Jackson (@jeremy_jackson)

·         4 Keys To Creating Products For The Lady Gaga Generation by Sarah Nagle (@SmartDesign)

·         The Mac Inventor's Gift Before Dying: An Immortal Design Lesson for His Son by Aza Raskin (@azaaza)

Be sure to bookmark Somersault’s (@smrsault) SomersaultNOW online dashboard; especially the Innovation tab.

“Give thanks to the LORD because he is good. God’s faithful love lasts forever!” Psalm 136:1 Common English Bible (CEB) (@CommonEngBible)

Happy New Year!

Jeff Sonderman (@jeffsonderman), digital media fellow at The Poynter Institute (@Poynter ), suggests that ebooks are causing change not only in traditional book publishing; they’re also causing a shift in news journalism. Here are lessons he offers:

·         Shorten the production cycle.

·         Crime and politics are popular topics.

·         Different price points.

·         Need to add value.

·         Don’t forget print books.

Read this in full.

Along the same lines, Christianity Today (@CTmagazine) is launching Christianity Today Essentials, a new series of “natural length ebooks,” described by editor-in-chief David Neff (@dneff) as content “longer than a longish magazine article, yet significantly shorter than the typical print book.” He says, “The format allows you, the reader, to go deeper and learn more than you could from a magazine article, without committing the time or money demanded by a full-length book.”

Leadership Network (@leadnet) is beginning a new series of "natural length experiences" under the brand Leadia (@leadiatalk). "Each piece is limited to 10,000 words and has live links to audio, video, and websites." A Leadia app is available for iPhones and iPads.

And Patheos.com (@Patheos) is starting Patheos Press, a "publisher of original ebooks."

Also read our blogpost, "Ebooks are the New Pamphlets."

As for changes in how news is reported, Meghan Peters (@petersmeg), Mashable's (@mashable) community manager, assesses in “6 Game-Changing Digital Journalism Events of 2011” the progress for online journalism in 2011, from breaking news curation to new revenue models:

1. Paywalls Find Their Footing

2. NPR’s Andy Carvin Proves the Value of Social Network Newsgathering

3. Journalists Flock to Google+

4. Mobile Gets Competitive

5. Facebook Makes Personal Branding Easier

6. The Pulitzer Goes Digital

Read this in full.

And just for fun, here’s a video of what the help desk would look like back in the day when print books overtook scrolls.

Stay current with news about the publishing world by bookmarking Somersault’s (@smrsault) SomersaultNOW online dashboard.

It is no exaggeration to say that the widespread acceptance of digital devices and a simultaneous contraction of shelf-space in stores qualify as a historic shift. The demise of Borders, the country's second-largest book chain as recently as a year ago, was largely offset by the sale of millions of e-readers and electronic books on a vast scale in a market now dominated by Amazon, Apple, Barnes & Noble, and Google. In May, Amazon announced that it was selling more ebooks than print books. On "Black Friday," November 25, Amazon said it had sold four times as many Kindles in a single day as it did in 2010. At this rate, it seems increasingly likely that ebooks will match printed books in the next few years, and eventually overtake them.

The popularity of multi-use tablets – Apple's iPads, the Kindle Fire (which has drawn criticism for a variety of technical glitches), B&N's Nook, and several others – has been another dominant feature of the year, serving up thousands of apps for games, music, magazines, and news sites, depending on your choice of device and price. As measured by IHS iSuppli research, and reported in the New York Times, Apple will ship about 18.6 million iPads in this quarter; the Kindle Fire, which went on sale in November, will sell about four million devices; and the Nook tablet will ship 1.3 million. While tablets have scores of uses, ebooks have so far held their own as defining attractions in the digital era. Their role is reminiscent of the way DVDs transformed the movie business in the 1990s, posing a major challenge for theaters while expanding the market for players to be used at home.

Bookstores have finally recognized the enormous potential of ebooks and the threat they pose to bookstores’ future share of the market. Hundreds of independent stores, with the strong backing of the American Booksellers Association, have signed on to a Google-supported system for ebook sales and now need to persuade customers that they can serve them digital products as well as Amazon, Apple, and the other industry leaders. The ABA said that members’ website sales were up 60% over last year, and that business overall was noticeably stronger.

Read this in full.

For digital book world (@DigiBookWorld), Jeremy Greenfield (@JDGsaid) wrote the article, “Five Big Stories of 2011 That Will Bleed Into 2012.” He advises readers to watch the following in the coming months:

·         As bookstores are closing, the issue of how new books will be discovered by consumers will continue to grow in urgency.

·         The new standard in ebook production, EPUB 3 and its inability to “play” with Amazon’s KF8.

·         The rise of the Kindle Fire and the role it will play in driving ebook sales, as well as its effect on other tablet sales.

·         The opportunity for US publishers to expand into foreign language ebook sales on the international market.

·         The “agency pricing model” for ebooks and the corresponding investigation of that model by the US Dept. of Justice.

Read this in full.

paidContent (@paidContent) has an entire series reviewing the Highlights of 2011, including "The Year in Book Publishing, By the Numbers" by Laura Hazard Owen (@laurahazardowen).

Stay current with news about the publishing world by bookmarking Somersault’s (@smrsault) SomersaultNOW online dashboard.

Changing Role of Christianity: Christian leaders are relatively unknown by the majority of Americans; half of Americans believe all people are eventually saved by God.

Downsized American Dreams: Americans’ are increasingly willing to accept limitations in life, including changing their spending and savings habits as well as distinguishing needs from wants. Many are also reducing their financial donations.

Millennials Rethink Christianity: The Christian community is struggling to remain connected with the next generation of teens and young adults. In particular, the church is “losing” many young creatives (like designers, artists, writers, musicians, and actors) as well as young science-minded students (such as medical students, engineers, biologists and mathematicians).

The Digital Family: Technology has become a part of modern life and is deeply embedded in today’s families. Yet, the challenges brought on by technology in the home are not all created by teens. Parents are becoming just as dependent on digital tools.

Maximizing Spiritual Change: Most Americans call themselves spiritual people and Christians. Yet, spiritual transformation is rare and fleeting.

Women Making it Alone: Teenage and young adult women are learning to prepare themselves for a changing social structure. For teens, this means focusing on career now. For young women, this means not expecting to be married until the late twenties, at least.

Read this in full.

Another way of determining trends is to see what terms people searched on Google for in 2011. Google Zeitgeist 2011 provides that info:

Video Year in Review

As for what people are watching, there were more than 1 trillion playbacks on YouTube in 2011. The highlight video is below. See the top ten individually.

Nielsen BookScan's Tops of 2011

1.) 50 million -- The big number from the Census everyone was talking about was the number of Hispanics, which crested this milestone for the first time. Later the Census and The New York Times found that even more people in the US (51 million) are at or near the poverty line.

2.) 50% +1 -- Some time in 2011 the children being born in the US tipped to majority-minority, according to Brookings Institute demographer William Frey. It'll take the population as a whole, decades before the white population is not the majority, but the newborns are there now. Diversity marketing is in for a makeover.

3.) Half of kids under 8 (and 40% of 2- to 4-year-olds) have access to a smartphone, iPad, or some other mobile media device.

4.) In October 2011 Facebookers in the US spent 136,000 aggregate years on the site, according to comScore.

5.) The US added just 11.2 million households between 2000 and 2010, the -- slowest household formation rate we've seen in a long time. This impacts industries like construction and any sort of household goods and services and is helping to keep the recovery slow.

6.) When asked all the reasons they subscribe to a local paper, 85% said local news, but nearly 4 in 10 said “habit,” according to the Ad Age/Ipsos Observer American Consumer Survey.

7.) Nuclear families account for just one-fifth of all households but more than one-third (34%) of total consumer spending. Nationwide there are 1.3 million fewer of them in 2010 than there were in 2000.

8.) One in three consumers can't afford your product: The 2011 Discretionary Spend Report from Experian Simmons finds 34.5% of households have less than $7,000 to spend on non-essential goods. Just over half have less than $10,000 to spend on entertainment, education, personal care, clothing, furniture and more.

9.) Don't count out old media. Fifty-seven percent of millennials indicated in a study from OMD that TV was the first way they hear about products and services.

10.) For the first time in American history there are now a million more female than male college graduates, according to the Census.

Read this in full.