Following on from the previous post on personalized medicine, a less serious application of genetics: DNA art, as reported in the Pittsburg Live website. DNA 11, an Ottawa, Canada-based company, takes people’s DNA, obtained by a simple cotton swab wiped inside a cheek, and turns the genetic information into a glass-framed, 8-by-10-inch visual piece of [...]

I have found some interesting articles on personalized medicine around the web in recent weeks which, when taken collectively, provide a useful examination of current developments in this area. An article in the Vancouver Sun, ‘One-size-fits-all no more‘ provides an interesting overview on the topic of personalized medicine, explaining the topic everyday language, and decoding [...]

The Inventorspot website has a news item on the new customized travel guides being produced by Dorling Kindersley (DK) Travel. They are similar in concept to Offbeat Guides, which were covered on this site recently. The Inventorspot article considers the DK Travel customized travel guide to be a superior offering to the Offbeat Guide, although [...]

Business consultancy Gartner has issued a press release relating to a recent IT symposium which it hosted in Cannes, France. Gartner claims that “Financial Institutions Must Focus on IT Innovation or Hibernate to Weather the Economic Downturn.” The press release quotes Alistair Newton, research vice president at Gartner, who makes a number of recommendations aimed [...]

David Sifry, the founder and former CEO of Technorati, has announced a first public beta (test version) for a new personalized travel guide service called Offbeat Guides. Offbeat Guides create personalized, up-to-date travel guides that cover over 30,000 travel destinations, using a combination of search technology and curation by both amateur and professional travel experts.  [...]

An article in the website of the Toronto Star notes that a “futuristic fusion of fashion and technology is becoming more common as clothing designers are increasingly incorporating electronics into their garments.” It quotes Jane McCann, director of Smart Clothes and Wearable Technology at the University of Wales, who predicts that, in the next 10 [...]

As part of the re-activation of this blog, I’ve decided to include an occasional update containing links to stories of relevance to anyone interested in the progress of the mass customization business model and all the related trends that have come to prominence in recent years. So, here goes: The website of Colby College in [...]

A recent study in the United States suggests that the phenomenon described as ‘The Daily Me‘ can also apply to groups of people who hold a particular point of view. ‘The Daily Me’ is a term used to describe the risks attached to personalized news services.  In everyday terms, a newspaper or online news aggregator [...]

I would very much have liked to attend the MCPC (Mass Customization and Personalization Conference) 2007 , which was held recently in MIT, Boston and HEC Montreal, however I was unable to do so due to other commitments. Therefore, I’m making a small contribution to the MCPC 2007 by gathering the thoughts of some of [...]

CreateSpace, part of the Amazon.com, has recently announced a new online Books on Demand service. CreateSpace was originally founded as CustomFlix Labs, Inc. in 2002 and acquired by Amazon.com Inc. in 2005. Prior to launching the Books on Demand service, CreateSpace was already providing inventory-free, physical distribution of CDs and DVDs on Demand, and video [...]

An interesting idea recently covered by Springwise is custom blended teas. Blends For Friends is a British company that sells custom-blended teas, mainly ordered as gifts. The buyer is asked to provide some information about the chosen recipient, although only some basic details are obligatory. However, there are many more optional pieces of information that [...]

Zazzle, the online marketplace for personalized products, may be close to securing funding of $30M from a hedge fund investor. This was reported on Friday last on Techcrunch. No official statement has, as yet, been issued by Zazzle regarding any investment.  If true, it would continue a remarkable run of success for Zazzle in attracting [...]

Frank Piller has posted an announcement regarding the 2007 World Conference on Mass Customization and Personalization. Keynote speakers include B. Joseph Pine (who wrote the book ‘Mass Customization – The New Frontier in Business Competition’ in 1993, which can be said to have kick started the whole area of mass customization), Eric Von Hippel of [...]

Internet custom products marketplace company Zazzle recently announced that it had acquired Confego, a San Francisco Bay Area company that provides software that enables brands to offer fully customized apparel, bags and footwear designed from the ground up. Confego co-founders Brennan Mulligan and David Gross have joined Zazzle effective immediately. Confego manages order fulfillment and [...]

Slacker, Inc. has recently announced the creation of “Personal Radio,” which enables U.S. consumers to customize their own radio stations and listen to them wherever they happen to be. The Slacker Personal Radio is available in beta for PC streaming at www.slacker.com and later this year on Slacker Portable Radio Players via Wi-Fi and Slacker [...]