.Lenovo Connections

Our next featured customer guest blogger, Vijay Saradhi hails from India, is an active participant in the Lenovo forum community and moderates Lenovo discussions in the Orkut community. I found his perspective on open source and the use of computing devices which are not in the traditional desktop or notebook form factors interesting.   Not every technological culture follows the same developmental roadmap or approach…

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I want to share my perspective on the radical shift in technology underway in my country and the way India has adapted in its development. There are many areas of computer science which are developing niche products in their own areas or domains, but two areas which hold my interest are the open source phenomenon and web based services. My never ending want to gain more knowledge as long as possible is due to the impetus called opensource.

All along these years I have been a bit of a layman about computers, a person who would use the usual software or tools without any choice. Why do I find opensource so amazing? My reason is that it provides a very good competition to large scale software companies because the rise of a formidable competitor in opensource will leave other companies with no choice but to provide better products. I have been using GNU/Linux for 6 years and it was this platform that presented various questions and queries. Remember Linux was not so user friendly once as it is today!

Due to my interest in computers and GNU/LINUX , I was inclined to try every single distro I could get my hands on, exploring the various characteristics of them though the web and social media. It is these kind of platforms which provide increased know-how to persons who are interested in these kind of areas. For example, Linux is being used as a tool for developing the rudimentary knowledge of computers for school children in the state of Kerala, which has India’s highest literacy rate. The state government chose Red Hat Enterprise Linux to be deployed not only in state run schools but also for its administrative purposes. In the IT policy of the federal government, the use of opensource software has provided many advantages such as the localization of important platforms like Mozilla Firefox and open office.org into our regional languages. I wonder whether that could have been possible, or as easily accomplished with proprietary software makers?

It is also Linux which powers India’s first locally made hand held computer called the “Simputer.”

Used under Creative Commons license (by-sa) from http://www.wizards-of-os.org/archiv/wos_3/presse/pressebilder.html

More on the simputer…

Innovative mechanisms like these and much more have given Indian people the power to utilize their synergies in a good manner. For a country such as India where any initiative in IT sector should be started in a big manner due to its huge population,(1.1 billion) a viable and economical solution is the adaption of opensource systems as a whole.

Vijay Saradhi

Recently, I talked about the global human network - people creating not only content, but context and relationships through social media - linking, posting, reposting across multiple social networks and sites.  So, who are the people in this network?  To explore and exemplify this concept a bit further, I invited a handful of customers from our community, each from a different part of the world to try their hand at a guest blog here.

Today, we hear from Steve, who volunteers his time to moderate on both the Lenovo and ThinkPads.com forum. Taking a look at his private collection of ThinkPads, which I hear has nearly doubled since these pictures were taken, it’s hard to imagine anyone who better personifies the moniker of ThinkPad enthusiast… 
 

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Imagine a place dedicated solely to ThinkPads, a museum if you will. You walk in the front doors and to the left you see a classic Butterfly, and to the right you see a new T61. In between, you see every other model of ThinkPad made by IBM/Lenovo.  This is a dream of mine and I intend to make it happen…even if it is in my own basement.

Hi, my name is Steve and I have an addiction that apparently many other people have. I love ThinkPads…everything ThinkPads! Call me a geek; it’s okay, I don’t mind. I fell in love with ThinkPads after working on my first one, a 600. It had a simple Pentium II 266MHz processor with a 6GB hard drive, but it was so easy to work on and IBM had everything documented in the form of Hardware Maintenance Manuals. The 600 series, including the 600E which I started working on next, had the best keyboard I had ever seen on a laptop. To this day, I still feel that it is the best keyboard ever made. The 600 series was just so sturdy, plain and simple. I continued to work on this series for a number of years, until it seemed to be considered antiquated by the general masses. Since then I have moved on to as many models as I can get my hands on, up to and including my T61. Along the way, I have been buying and selling ThinkPads, creating just enough extra cash flow to allow me to back up and purchase quite a few of the older models to begin building my own shrine to the ThinkPad name. Here are some pictures that I took last year, when I only had about 20 Thinkpads (I now have over 40 working ThinkPad systems):

Some might ask, why the ThinkPad? It looks so plain and simple. Well, I’ll take plain and simple any day, when they are as durable as ThinkPads have proven themselves to me. Besides, I look at it this way, if I were sitting at a coffee shop using my ThinkPad across from someone using a nice and shiny Mac or Dell, and we both turned our backs for a moment…who’s laptop is likely to disappear first? Mr. Flashy, or Mr. Plain and Simple? I rest my case…

During my years of working on ThinkPads, I stumbled across an incredibly informative and professional forum: forum.thinkpads.com. I found myself on that forum EVERY day, reading and learning more about ThinkPads. After about 6 months of surfing that forum, I was asked to become a moderator. Wow, talk about an exciting honor. Then a year and a half later I was honored again, this time by the Lenovo staff, when I was asked to become a moderator on Lenovo’s own forum, as they were getting ready to launch it.

Just for fun and more proof that I am addicted to ThinkPads, here’s one of two videos I created regarding the arrival of my T61 last year. I posted them on YouTube and at the time of this writing, they have over 58,000 views combined!!

From there, I went on to use my original Youtube channel to create ThinkPad repair videos, which I didn’t get very far with due to lack of time. I am hoping to begin posting more videos under that account over the summer. You can check out that channel here.

Thanks for taking the time to read this!

Steve aka tfflivemb2 (Moderator at forum.lenovo.com and forum.thinkpads.com)T61,T42(x2)T41,T40(x2),R40,T30(x2),T23(x3),T21,T20,X20,A31,A21M,600/E/X(multiples of each),770X,i1400(x2),760XL,760ED(x2 w/base),380XD,755CD,750P,360P,365X,560X,701C/CS,730T,PS/Note

As Erik fairly prodded me in the comments on my last post, companies need to listen to their customers. Lenovo is listening, and we are making changes, but perhaps we aren’t sharing what we’ve heard and what we are doing about it as much as we should be.

And, if we aren’t doing that, how do our customers know we are truly listening?

Mark

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Guest blogging today is Ed Shumpert, a program manager in the Lenovo Americas services group…

You may remember when Chris Askew highlighted Lenovo’s focus on Customer Delight and a new service survey that we launched to gauge our performance. Boy did you guys take notice! We have received over 42,000 responses to date in the US, Canada, Mexico, and Brazil since starting on July 9^th, 2007!

It has been so successful that we are now expanding the program and are very close to launching the Customer Delight survey process worldwide. You should start seeing the new surveys everywhere in August.But don’t think that we are stopping there. Getting good feedback is only one part of the performance picture! Feedback without action is apathy and there is no place in Lenovo for that. One of the first things we did when we started the new survey is to assemble teams across all of our service channels (Depot, Onsite, CRU , Helpcenter) to review the surveys and develop actions to resolve the issues identified. Some of the results of this work have been showing up in our service channels over the past six months, and I thought I’d highlight a few of those actions here today.

If you have ever phoned a call center you have definitely heard it: “Thank you for calling…” The VRU, otherwise known as a Voice Response Unit, is scornfully referred to as a four letter word by many. You told us that our call center VRU was an extremely long thing that was confusing and hard to navigate. Well we heard you loud and clear! After receiving your surveys about our VRU we worked with our service partner, IBM, and completely revamped the VRU from scratch. The US call center receives thousands of calls per day so this was something that had an impact for many customers. Our VRU team identified several rather compelling facts which surprised us:

• 30% of our customers were spending over two minutes listening to the VRU before they even got connected to a technician.
• If they listened to each message completely it could take as long as five minutes!
• Because our support number was so complex we also found that some 19% of our calls were mis-routed due to the wrong option being selected .

On the weekend of June 15^th, 2008 all of that changed when we went live with a completely revamped VRU: it’s not only shorter but it’s also less complex. Since the new options have gone in place errors resulting in a transfer been reduced from 19% to 2%. Even better, 90% of all calls are now through the VRU and connected within 30-60 seconds. We also made it easier for you to identify which option to choose for Lenovo support.

(See figure below - this is the simplified version, the original was too large and complex to be viewed on a single screen )

Larger image

Another thing we heard was that our pixel policy on ThinkPads was too complex - with thresholds for replacement varying by screen size, resolution, and in certain combinations of stuck on or off pixels. We agree. As of this week, there is a new, simplified policy in place that we believe is close to being an industry best. If you have more than 2 defective pixels on any in-warranty ThinkPad purchased Jan 1, 2008 or later, Lenovo will replace your LCD. Here is the new policy.

You also told us that our returns and replacement process was too much of a hassle. While our return policy mirrored the industry standard, we have taken steps to ensure that any hardware defects or failures encountered during the first 21 days of ownership are addressed quickly and easily. We won’t require you to service your system before you can return or replace it, if it is defective. If you would like to give us a chance to repair it, we can extend a free one time upgrade to Onsite repair to get it fixed quickly. If you still wish a refund or replacement, we will now conference you with our Sales team and stay with you. If you bought your system as part of our employee, friends, and family purchase program you’re now accommodated with the same options as a regular sale. (In the past, due to the deep discounts, additional limitations applied)

The improvements don’t end there, and many more are underway. Please continue to provide feedback through these post service surveys. If our service didn’t exceed you expectations let us know so we can make sure we change that. If we did a good job then let us know that as well. We reward performance and would love to include your comments in our service awards for high performers.

This blog was titled connections, and my vision was for it to become a connector between Lenovo and various customer communities, linking them together, interjecting information on relevant topics of interest outside the products themselves, and providing some insight and commentary along the way.  Connections between communities, between customers and Lenovo.

Soon after launching this blog,  we launched our customer community forum, and I’ve been fully immersed in that ever since.   The forum is a human network, each member acting as an originator,  transmitter, or receiver of information.   Members often participate in other forums, some even span languages.  Through contributing new ideas, raising issues, offering solutions, and propagating the information flow through linking and reposting, a vast and very global human network is operating on top of the physical internet.

Whether we twitter, blog, or participate in communities - forums, facebook, Orkut, etc - our online activities within all social networks, parallel the same kind of operations being carried out by the internet itself, and the bridges, routers, and servers which comprise it. All courtesy of these “Web 2.0″ apps. 

But unlike the internet, the human network is volitional - people choose where they link, where they participate , how they contribute, and perhaps most interestingly, to what end.    Where is this heading?

*Joe Cothrel, VP of Lithium’s Community management had this to say on the company’s blog..

“..Where does enterprise social media go from here?  Contrary to conventional wisdom, we aren’t really at the beginning of anything: we’re halfway through a generation-long business transformation that began with the advent of the commercial web more than a dozen years ago.  In the first phase, we learned how to create environments in which customers would find value in interaction.  In the second phase, which we’re now in, we’re learning how to listen.   Before the transformation is complete, we’ll see a new kind of business organization, one that creates and perfects its products and processes in an ongoing dialogue with its customers.  I don’t see any company completing this cycle today.  But I think we’ll see it soon…”

So with the plumbing of the blogs and forums in place, and a growing customer community participating actively with us, I’m very excited to see how the global human network - social media, transforms the way in which Lenovo and it’s customers interact. 

 What do you see as a possible future?

*Disclosure:  Lenovo uses Lithium technologies in it’s forum community.

“Our goal…to put more innovation in the hands of more people, so they can do more amazing things.” We’ve all read these messages featured prominently in Lenovo advertisements and promotions, and we’ve seen the innovation demonstrated in Lenovo products (see video embedded below), but how is innovation inspired?

Innovation flows from the people, pervades the culture, and is expressed in the environment. It is this last point that I want to focus on today, because I believe that we are influenced by our surroundings. On each floor of our buildings, a different colorful and thought provoking quote greets employees and guests as they disembark the elevators.

The third floor reads “Small opportunities are often the beginning of great enterprises.”

Each day, the second floor greets me with John F Kennedy’s inspirational challenge to the status quo:

“There are costs and risks to a program of action, but they are far less than the long range risks and costs of comfortable inaction.”

I find this one especially meaningful, as it speaks to the courage to undertake change, to risk bold steps for a better and brighter tomorrow. It’s appealing to me and I find it motivates me to take on the more challenging issues today, rather than comfortably deferring them until later. Having honest dialog with our customers via our blogs and forums feels risky sometimes, but I believe ultimately the mutual understanding created will benefit both Lenovo and our customers.

Passing a few moments before entering a conference room, my eye is drawn to the lithographic plaque affixed to the frosted glass wall next to the door. Each room’s plaque features a different person of significance. The facts and circumstances of their greatness are clearly outlined, but each also provokes further thought, sparking inspiration and innovation. For example:

Aparantly, Hedy was an actress who also happened to dabble in spread spectrum technology, specifically code division multiple access, or CDMA which later became the basis for cell telephone and wireless network access. Along with the help of a neighbor, these principles were purportedly worked out in the garage. Many companies were founded on great ideas born in humble locations.

From this I conclude that innovative ideas may come from anywhere - one doesn’t have to be solely a scientist or engineer by formal position in order to produce an innovative idea which in time may become something far larger and more foundational than what was originally envisioned or intended. Small breakthroughs today may become the basis for revolutionary thinking tomorrow.

Opportunity is all around us, to develop new technology, new ways of connecting people, new innovation that leads to things we haven’t even imagined…

Editor’s Note: Today we have Cleo Lee guest blogging here on Connections. Cleo is located in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and recently joined our social media team. She will bring new insights and perspectives to the conversations in our Lenovo community, in the blogs and forums.

12^th of May, Monday evening; I was really stunned to learn that a 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck Sichuan. My thoughts were suddenly of my little sister. She is staying in Hubei Province which is on the east of Sichuan. Very quickly, I contacted her and it was truly a relief to know that she was safe. Although she mentioned there was a little shaking and feeling of unsteadiness, my family and I still advised her to stay alert and keep important documents with her just in case there was another strike; she would be able to run right away. Living in Malaysia, which has no natural disasters like earthquake or volcanoes, we were really worried of the catastrophe in Sichuan.

A friend of mine in Beijing was affected by the quake, too! She immediately ran down from the 19^th floor to the ground floor. It was really terrifying to learn the power of a quake which can even affect a place that is thousand miles away! I could feel the pain after taking a look at those sorrowful pictures from the internet and the TV news. Agony and compassion have never been away from me even though I am not in China.

Reckoning back to December 2006, I had been on vacation in Chengdu, Sichuan for few days. The tourist bus has stopped for a rest in DuJiangYan (one of the most serious disaster areas) while on the way to JiuZhaiGou (tourism spot). It was a peaceful and beautiful town and yet it has now become one of the disaster areas that I could not even imagine. Schools and houses are all but rubble now. What if I were there? What if I were buried under the ruins? I cannot even imagine. Perhaps you may want to see the picture of the fallen buildings.

It really saddens me knowing the students were buried under the rubble without knowing if they will be rescued. At this moment, I wished I could be one of the rescue crew to chase away their sorrows and bring those victims back to their loved ones.

Another scene that caught my attention was the little cute babies in a hospital. As soon as the earthquake struck, the brave nurses were carrying babies with them while fleeing out of the tumbling hospital. I was really amazed by their devoted love despite of the danger and disaster that’s unfolding. I would like to express my respect to the nurses for their kindness, fearless and selfless thoughts and acts which surely reduced possible injuries and deaths.

In spite of the great losses that the earthquake had caused, the human spirit is not defeated. Instead, it united everyone regardless of their skin color, race or creed. Many countries, for instance, the United States and Germany, have offered their help by sending their rescue teams to the disaster areas. Moreover, the Chinese around the world are raising funds for the victims, too! That is the kind and compassionate heart that we are seeking for the peace of the world.

There was a conversation recorded between Weng JiaBao, the Premier of China, to the rescue crews and the victims that really touched my heart.

“Fear no sacrifice, fear no weariness, and give all of you instead”
“Have faith in overcoming the fear of disaster as there are plenty of times in the future that we can start it all over again as long as we are still alive!”

I totally agree! Life is the hope

I was inspired in part by the quick response in formation of the Lenovo Crisis Management Team by our Lenovo teammates in China. Even though none of the Lenovo employees were directly affected, Lenovo is still concerned about the families and friends affected. Just like Reid Walker, Lenovo World Wide VP of Communications has mentioned in his blog about Lenovo responds to China earthquake, “Lenovo is part of each community which we operate around the world”. We always try to do our utmost to help and provide assistance to our neighbors.

I pray for you my friends in Sichuan. And I pray for the death toll to stop soaring!

For more information, here is a Chinese website that is translated by Yahoo! Babelfish: Link

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五月十二号的晚上，从电视台晚间新闻中得知四川发生7.8级地震的消息后，震撼之际脑海里瞬间想起了远在中国武汉大学求学的小妹。武汉市位于湖北省，虽然和四川省相隔几千里，然而心中依然焦虑不已，赶紧拨号与她联系。获知她平安无事后，我们全家人方才松了口气。即使如此，她也感应到了微小震感，甚至有些头昏目眩。我们仍然不放心地再三叮嘱她做好准备，一旦发生余震，便能第一时间逃离到宽敞并且安全的场地。由于生长在无重大自然灾害的国家，对于此次天灾的突然降临，我们又无法陪在她身边，因此内心甚是忧虑的。

我给一位北京友人发了一条短信问候。事发时她和同事都感到了震动，赶紧从19楼大厦狂奔到楼底外。此次地震竟波及千里之外的北京，可见其威力巨大，令人惧怕！从中国的一些网站和电视台上，看到了许多触目惊心的悲惨照片与画面。虽然人不在事发现场，但是却能感同身受；心里的悲愁一直没有停止过。或许看了这崩塌的楼房，你就明白了。

犹记2006年10月，我到四川成都旅游。前往九寨沟时路径都江堰，我曾在那儿小休一会儿，购买零食。如今，它却变成了灾区之一；一些学校和房子纷纷跨塌。倘若此时此刻我身在该处，而又不幸地被困压在废墟中，我将会是怎样的心情？在暗无天日的废墟里，独处于险境的我，又会想到些什么呢？我想，我会惊吓至崩溃大哭。

众多学生被掩埋在废墟里，生死未卜。随后，只见一具具冰冷的尸体被援军抬出。此景，震撼了我内心！欲参与救援的念头，异常强烈。我真希望能为灾民献出一份力，拯救并将他们的亲人带返身边，抚慰其悲恸的心灵。
图片 1: 无助的母亲救孩子

此次灾难中，令我印象最深刻的莫过于白衣天使的敬业精神。护士们各自怀抱着可爱的婴儿，一一逃出快要崩塌的医院大楼。面临危难之际，她们毫不畏惧，舍身呵护，依然细心看顾宝宝们，把伤害降到最低。我在此为她们无私的爱向她们致敬！

图片 2: 庆幸的宝宝
图片 3: 敬业的护士 (一）
图片 4: 敬业的护士 (二）

纵然此次灾害，带来了严重性的破坏、损失与无尽伤痛，但与此同时全世界人们的心相互联系在一起，团结一致。大家不分肤色、不分种族及宗教信仰，齐心协力伸出援手抢救受难者。世界各国，如美国与德国也提供支援部队抵灾区援救；海外华侨纷纷筹款赈灾等等之表现，无不值得赞扬。而这些正是我们所期望看见的一颗炽热的爱心。

中国总理温家宝对施救部队和灾难者所说的话让我非常感动。

“不怕牺牲，不怕疲劳，付出自己的一切”
“要具有战胜灾害的信心，将来的日子还长，只要还活着，一切都可以重来”

是的，活着便是希望！

令人鼓舞的是，中国联想同事聚集了一支团队，设立危机处理组，时时刻刻跟进此次灾害的最新消息。尽管目前为止并无任何职员直接受影响，但是，我们想为亲朋戚友和灾区的罹难者付出一分力量的心始终不变。正如 Reid Walter 在他部落格文章《联想对中国地震的回应》提到的，联想无时无刻与你同在。联想在适当时期将竭尽所能，协力帮助四川人民，以保障他们的安全。

四川的朋友，我愿为你祈祷。请求上帝怜悯，帮助他们度过难关。在此，由衷期盼罹难人数不再攀升！

更多相关资料：
http://www.xinhuanet.com/photo/kzjz.htm

Several weeks ago, Lenovo hosted the grand opening of the new US fulfillment center in Whitsett, North Carolina.  The official news release, and broader media coverage speak to the usual points of interest - the job creations, partnership with local and state government, and the commitments to the community which Lenovo is demonstrating by this move.

What I wanted to talk about today, were other aspects that I personally found interesting and compelling.  I met a number of new Lenovo employees and was surprised and impressed by the diversity of their career backgrounds and personal experiences prior to joining Lenovo.  For example, I met Jaritza seen below working in the configuration and custom imaging area of the facility.  In the course of our conversation, I learned that she previously worked as a specialist on a semiconductor fabrication line, so she not only knows her way around a PC, but has seen and understands the processes used to build it’s most foundational components.

 

Other employees I spoke with had management, and industrial process experiences prior to joining Lenovo, and I could easily imagine the kind of contributions they make to the Lean Six Sigma process under which the facility operates.    I remembered blogging about Lean Six Sigma last year when Lenovo began to deploy it, and was impressed to see that the new fulfillment center truly embraced the principles and structured the processes and operations accordingly.  The lean discipline removes waste from processes while the six sigma principles improve consistency of execution. 

While at the facility, I had the opportunity to meet Ken Grissom, the general manager, and spend a few minutes walking around with him.  We talked about the processes, the present and future missions for the facilities, and the innovations, including the use of Lenovo’s own ThinkPads, as part of an overall integrated inventory management and control system.  Each fork truck carries a ThinkPad and a laser scanner, wirelessly networked.   It was gratifying to see the company tag line about putting innovation in the hands of more people applied to our own efforts.

I was left with an overall impression that the center is in extremely competent hands.  Ken exhibited vision, a unique understanding of his employees, and what is required to foster an outstanding work ethic.   Employees will show up for a job, but to achieve excellence, you need to have them truly believe in what they are doing, and channel their creativity and passion for excellence into all aspects of what they do.   While this enthusiasm was evident in every employee I spoke with, it’s perhaps best visualized by a banner hung at the entrance to the work area.   Each employee signs their name, committing to the ideals and values by which this center operates.

As I left for the day, I thought about our other plants around the world in Mexico, India, China, and Poland in varying stages of completion and about the people, processes, and cultures playing out in each of them.  Our new Shanghai plant went live last May and our Baddi, India plant became fully operational on August 30.  Lenovo manufacturing facilities in Mexico and Poland are currently under construction and are expected do “go live” by the end of 2008.  These each play a critical role in Lenovo’s growth and evolution as we shorten supply lines to our customers, and assume direct control of our end-to-end supply chain by improving our costs, reducing our delivery times, providing the value-added services our customers need, and ensuring our innovative PCs are manufactured with the highest level of quality.

Lenovo products are world-class, and we are hard at work to ensure all other aspects of the Lenovo experience grow in excellence to match them.

More to come…

Lenovo builds some of the most durable and best engineered PCs available.  

Matt Kohut has previously blogged about how rugged and well put together our ThinkPads are.   Sometimes though, accidents happen, and no spill resistant keyboard, magnesium roll cage,  or “air bag” auto parking hard disks are going to completely save you.  

For example, suppose your ThinkPad were to be driven over by a semi ?

It could happen, and in fact, it did…

 

Where the standard  warranties, which guard against defects in materials or workmanship leave off, ThinkPad protection steps up.  This unique coverage offers Lenovo customers repair or replacement protection for their system in the unfortunate event that any of life’s little mishaps occur.   For those who appreciate the fine print, the details of the coverage can be read here.  Protection services are also available for Lenovo 3000 notebook models as part of many upgraded service options available when configuring on our website.

Hopefully your laptop will never require protection from semi trucks, but the coverage also helps recover from the more mundane events like large soda spills, the new puppy who chews on everything, or having loaned your system to your roomate, the bad luck magnet.   Whatever your reasons  may be, ThinkPad protection may be an option worth considering  on your next Lenovo ThinkPad, by itself or as part of many flexible warranty upgrades.  Data is not covered, so remember to make back ups.

Lastly, while not related to my central points on the value of accidental damage protection, I think there is another aspect worth mentioning here as well.  Though the machine is seriously broken by the weighty truck’s passage,  as evidenced by the dual tire marks and cracked lid, the interior view shows that the roll cage and full perimeter support design of the top cover did an excellent job of distributing the overwhelming force.  Much of the inner workings remain remarkably intact. 

Pretty amazing. 

Approaching the elevators on my way into work yesterday I noticed something a bit different…  

The usually plain stainless steel doors, had been transformed overnight into vibrant promotions for Lenovo’s newest products, the X300 ThinkPad, the ThinkStation, and the uber green ThinkCentre M57p desktop.

Perhaps I’ve been living under a rock.   I’ve seen a growing number of cars, vans and buses on the road wrapped with amazing graphic designs.  I’ve even seen store windows and doors given the same treatment but never an elevator.  In hindsight, it seems brilliant, especially in a modern high-rise office building.    

Everyday hundreds, even thousands of people gather in small groups awaiting the arrival of an elevator.  Some press the elevator call button then occupy themselves with small talk, or just stare ahead at the closed doors while reflecting on their day.  Others impatiently jab the button repeatedly in hopes the elevator will sense their efforts and hasten it’s approach, but eventually even their eyes revert to the implacable steel doors. 

Now, with a bit of clever wrap and some grand artwork, the humble elevator can make a bold brand impression on those awaiting its arrival.

What is the most memorable elevator wrap you’ve seen and where was it?

On August 8 in Beijing, the Olympic flame will have completed a five month journey from its home in Greece to the opening ceremonies of the Summer Olympic Games. Lenovo, as a global sponsor of those games, of the torch relay, and indeed, the design of the very torch itself, is proud to be the official supplier of personal computers to this historic event, China’s first hosting of the Olympics. Today Lenovo is proud to announce its interactive guide to the summer games, the Lenovo Olympic Podium is live.

For the past six months a team of Google engineers led by Thomas Lowry and Tonia Lipscomb, David Aubespin, Shyam Govardhan and Kevin McCloskey worked with Lenovo’s web team of Alan White, Esteban Panzeri, Sheji Ho, Caroline Stringer, Donna Bedford and Rebecca Welles to create a dynamic platform for streaming content about the Games. This platform or “Podium” is officially open today at http://2008.lenovo.com.

The Podium is a highly customizable experience built on iGoogle gadget technology, where a user, once signed in, can change the appearance and layout of the page and add custom modules, or gadgets, or related content. Existing Google account holders will automatically sign in to the system.
The team has focused on the creation of gadgets that stream content dynamically from:

• News sources
• Olympic athlete bloggers – we’re recruiting more than 100 athletes to blog on our new IdeaPad line of notebooks
• Map interfaces using mashups of Google Maps and the Olympic Torch Relay route and the Beijing Olympic venues
• YouTube videos related to the Games
• Picasa photos from the Games

What would you like to see in a gadget? The team plans on releasing a steady stream of new ones throughout the months leading up to the Games: from television broadcast schedules, to results, to first person stories and images from the athletes themselves.

The bloggers will be coming online in the weeks to come, so return often to the Podium to see and hear what they have to say. The first two bloggers to join us are Australian rower and Olympic gold medalist, Drew Ginn and US women’s soccer team member, Lindsay Tarpley.

Drew blogs at http://drewginn.blogspot.com

Lindsay is at http://www.lindsaytarpley5.com

If you have any suggestions, please leave a comment.