Rick Robinson

On-demand Rides a Decade Before Uber: Recollections on a Forgotten “Mobile 1.0” Innovation

When data-enabled mobile phones arrived over 20 years ago they promised to extend the wave of Internet adoption beyond the PC to anywhere consumers wanted to roam. Email under the table during boring meetings? sure. Text-based games in the bathroom?…

‘Party Line’​ Redux: Sometimes Reinvention is a Shortcut to Innovation

I entered a time machine recently, with the ticket to ride being my phone — naturally — and traveled years deep into the last century where I fell into a good old fashioned … party line?People were chattering on about shorting stocks in one corner…

What The Seven Sins May Teach Us About Innovation, And Its Risks

One morning at our local bagel shop I watched as a tall man in skinny jeans approached to order, still scanning his iPhone 11 and intently push-pulling through the posts of some app or other. Standard behavior these days of course, but what happened…

AARP / Innovation Labs Team Honored

WASHINGTON—AARP has been named one of Fast Company’s 2020 Best Workplaces for Innovators. Now in its second annual year, the list honors businesses and organizations that demonstrate a deep commitment to encouraging innovation at all levels. AARP…

How Older Entrepreneurs are Helping to Shape the Tech Landscape

A conversation at the United Nations Crossing off "speaking at the UN" is not something I ever imagined having the privilege to do. (As life goals go, it's a good one.) But this Fall I was surprised by an invitation from the United Nations via my…

On-demand Rides a Decade Before Uber: Recollections on a Forgotten “Mobile 1.0” Innovation

When data-enabled mobile phones arrived over 20 years ago they promised to extend the wave of Internet adoption beyond the PC to anywhere consumers wanted to roam. Email under the table during boring meetings? sure. Text-based games in the bathroom?…

Innovation at AARP Labs

"It's simple. I just remove everything that is not David." This quote is commonly attributed to Michelangelo in response to Pope Julius II's question about how he was able to produce such a masterwork. No evidence indicates the exchange ever…

USA Today Publisher Larry Kramer Looks to a Local Future

It’s lunch time, but Larry Kramer is not eating. He’s too busy reviewing the new iPad edition of USA Today, comparing it against the Web, taking a call and attending to a blogger all at once. Then there’s the nasty cold that would keep some people…

Through This Ourglass, Watching TV in Public Is More Fun

At the outset, Ourglass, based in Campbell, Calif., thought it was going to be selling hardware products to bars and restaurants. But why do that when you can give all that away and sell lucrative sponsorships? And how? By making the TV smarter of…

Friends Don’t Let Friends Dial Drunk — There’s a ‘Mode’ for That

I can’t say I’m proud of working my way through the vices in this column. But if I do get to sloth, please somebody stop me. Let’s see, there was that time I wrote about an app to help you party and hook up with foreigners when you travel. Then of…

If the Gym Fits, Reserve It — Startup Makes It Easy to Never Miss a Workout

How many times have you been stuck in traffic trying to get to the gym before the window closes and you need to be at work or home for dinner? I’m betting for many of you it’s a lot — certainly is for me. But suppose that gym on the other side of a…

7 Startups Decamp to the ‘Smartest Place in the World’ to Rethink Mobility

This was originally published on Street Fight Marketers using mobile phones to connect real-time data and buyer-intention to drive and measure consumer foot traffic is a tired vision of the future from last year … it has more to do with our past than…

7 Startups Decamp to the ‘Smartest Place in the World’ to Rethink Mobility

Marketers using mobile phones to connect real-time data and buyer-intention to drive and measure consumer foot traffic is a tired vision of the future from last year … it has more to do with our past than our future. It’s so 2016. How about cars…

CloudSponge: Soaking Up Your Contacts to Connect You Anywhere

We’ve all been there — asked to open our address books so a software tool could swipe our contacts and email friends or neighbors to help spread the word about something of interest, or include them in the cool new app we just discovered. These days…

Voice Bots Have One Big Problem: Human Behavior

I love you. What are the best shampoos to fight hair loss? When does the next season of Girls begin? Find local spas with a male masseur. What is the average weight of a 5’7” woman? Please make a dinner reservation for our anniversary. Find the…

Voice Bots Have One Big Problem: Human Behavior

I love you. What are the best shampoos to fight hair loss? When does the next season of Girls begin? Find local spas with a male masseur. What is the average weight of a 5’7” woman? Please make a dinner reservation for our anniversary. Find the…

Google Analytics for Brick-and-Mortar? Spatially Targets Where to Set Up Shop

Creating a business is harder than you think. Even if you’ve done it before, your recollections are likely whitewashed by a self-preserving subconscious — a salve to the many pains of creating something from nothing and trying to keep it…

Post in the Machine: How Blockast is Taking a Shot at Local News Collection

Were I to count the ways mainstream news outlets, hyperlocals and other hopefuls have tried to tackle the challenge of successfully covering local news for a mobile audience (which is to say… everyone), I’d need more hands. This is not to imply prior…

The Buzz on Wikileaf: Compare Pot Prices Then Map a Route to Your Next High

A GasBuddy for pot? Why not? At least that seems to be the conclusion of one Seattle-based entrepreneur, whose location-based pricing-and-reviews service wants a slice of what he estimates will be an $8 billion industry in 2017. Dan Nelson started…

Hand Delivery, No Lines, Pharmacist Chats — You Call This a Pharmacy?

It’s right up there with sitting in rush hour traffic on the DC Beltway or hanging out in my doctor’s waiting room — the joy of picking up prescriptions. The local pharmacy was once a place with some communal value where you knew the pharmacist and…