Announcing Our New Program Interstitial Spaces

It’s been a long time coming, but we’re finally proud to say that Enfad Research is swinging open its doors and reaching out to welcome a network of peers who are passionate about the promise of emerging technology and want to participate in creating connections both intellectually and in business.

We are discovering that different institutions amidst a burgeoning digital economy face strikingly similar challenges – and derive benefit from a mutual exchange of ideas, experience and insight. In this context, we believe that a broad network of peers can do far more than any individual institution working in relative isolation. Increasingly, connectivity matters more and more because the problems institutions need to solve are simply far too complex for any individual skill-set or field to handle. We are also finding that institutions want to be more open to exploit the best ideas available. Innovative businesses who desire to move beyond outdated business practices want to start a conversation that brings together honest views, opinions and the experience of a wide variety of peers. In part in response to this emerging desire for openness, our new initiative has emerged and seeks to reach beyond well- established boundaries by facilitating cutting edge ideas where traditional disciplines, categories and labels interface. We intend for this fusion of ideas, techniques and expertise to provide for the evolution of modern and imaginative methods of insight, in addition to the creation of new areas of endeavour. There is now a growing renaissance of literature supporting such linkages – and at Enfad we are calling this process “Interstitial-Thinking”.  

What is Interstitial-Thinking? 

The word interstitial means "between spaces" and is commonly used to denote "in-betweenness" in many contexts. Interstitial- Thinking is about uncovering the value-space in the interstices between the familiar disciplinary boundaries of business, technology, science and culture. The term connotes a strategy to take on complexity in a collaborative manner by thinking across well-established borders, melding knowledge that reaches beyond today's disciplines and practices. Interstitial-Thinking is an idea – a conversation – not a hard-and-fast-definition — and it's a conversation we ask you to join. Our philosophy is to keep things very low key by letting the right relationships develop over time, enabling participants the opportunity to dip their toes in the process without any pressure or formality. All the while, the give-and-take characteristic of the program allows the network to organically surface and evolve.

The outreach is particularly suited to senior decision makers in academia, commerce, technology and design, as well as to external provocateurs who are fuelled by intelligence, enthusiasm and humour. We are very interested in hearing about the state-of-the-art to expose a wide range of “big ideas” and “big macro themes” that might not be exposed otherwise. We really do believe that the Internet possesses a set of norms and practices that are unique and that should be studied separately from unmediated life. As such, we are looking to encourage new thinking by providing a platform across numerous fields to join these fields together in an integrated, multidisciplinary environment. If you're involved in the digital ecosystem (or if you're curious about how the digital world will impact our lives), you belong in our initiative. If you are interested, please contact:

Raheel Naqvi

About The Interstitial Initiative

Enfad's Interstitial Program is dedicated to building relationships with professional organisations, academic partners, industry partners and government agencies that cultivate the excellences of "Interstitial-Thinking" in the digital age. We extend the reach of our work through this program to include organising involvement with external practitioners and the research community. For more information, please visit http://www.enfad.com. Enfadʼs success with this initiative will be rooted in our ability to collaborate across disciplines. We will look to harness novel – sometimes even unlikely – combinations of people in order to explore the major changes of the day. We will also look to cultivate relationships with diverse groups and seek to advance our own capabilities by engaging with peers who want to take part in frank and open discussions. We feel that aligning research interests with such groups not only extends Enfadʼs knowledge supply chain, but also serves to shape and improve the program's collective goals. 

Growth Platforms

Organisations are struggling because platforms aren't what they used to be. As platforms increasingly exhibit market type (two-sided) behaviour, organisations need to be particularly agile about deciding how to serve and support future consumers online. The phenomenal growth and propagation of 'ecosystemic platforms' this year, via web services, mobile platforms and media channels, has meant consumers have increased access to more information, at greater speed and lower cost, than ever before. However, the burgeoning complexity of offerings, as well the associated risks and rewards, confounds and frustrates most time-starved consumers. As such, traditional channels mature and consumers’ dissatisfaction for such offerings grow; the second generation of the commercial web is now offering a different promise.

Living in a screen age, where new channels and business models are constantly emerging means that countless opportunities have opened up with an infinite canvass for creative potential. Similarly, as all future platforms increasingly become 'ecosystemic', it’s not about being in one place. It's now about the ability to be anywhere, depending on the context and the moment. Sewing it all together seamlessly in a multi-channel environment has become crucial.

In the same context, because digital services are fundamentally customer- driven, the value-chain starts from the market side. For that reason, strong customer experiences and inexpensive cost structures 'mash' together in a loosely joined architecture, promise to create a rich hybrid of collaborative, new-to-the world platforms.

Yet the challenge on how to evolve business models and create meaningful value remains a mystery to most. The problem isn’t about a lack of new ideas. It’s about creating the processes and methods that uncover relevant ideas and knowing what to do with them.

Live & Breathe a Mediated Life

The global explosion in conversational media means it has become a key component in customer strategy across consumer markets.

The days of trust in consumer services based purely on deference to institution size, brand or geographic locations are gone. Trust is now established through other peoples' experiences, i.e., people "like me." However, creating a listening culture still presents a challenge for many companies.

Nevertheless, there is no doubt that combining customer thoughts, questions, intentions, stories and innovative ideas provides a far deeper understanding of the context for buying decisions and which taps into their core motivations. And given that more than 50% of online consumers create this context, economists are beginning to cite that ‘conversational context’ is crucial to the understanding of the new economics of consumption.

This is because most of what online connected consumers create relating to their life is not content but context, information about the value of goods and services.  Context, in turn, lets connected consumers navigate the web more effectively and massively amplifies the incentives for quality.

Equipping oneself with this granular, real-time view of unfiltered behaviours and attitudes has become crucial to brands. Providing a reliable real-time barometer with which to make informed decisions – really does speak for it-self.

A Call to Creatives

Enfad is putting out a call out for 'creatives'. We're looking to build a passionate first rate team, representing a unique opportunity to be part of an early stage venture with all the ambitious possibilities that come with it. We want to create a network of likeminded creatives, who support each other's ideas, and encourage a creative collaboration between the arts and business worlds. Specifically, we're seeking mid or senior career designers to help clients (eBusiness professionals, senior marketeers, multi-channel strategists, designers and product managers) to envision new opportunities and define compelling new offerings (digital products, web services and mobile platforms). The ideal candidates will be analytical, conceptual, and visual thinkers, great listeners and confident in engaging senior client executives in conversation on their critical business challenges. We expect (she or he) will be an entrepreneur at heart, feel comfortable working in a team environment and be willing to contribute to development of new intellectual property. Ultimately, we want people with a real creative zing to work with clients.

If you like where we're coming from and if you fit the bill send in your CV/portfolio/sample/short, via email to: rnaqvi[at]enfad[dot]com. You never know, it might be the start of something big. If you wish to discuss the work before applying, please contact me because I have a full job spec.

Shiny New Website

If you're reading this then you have reached our shiny new website. Take a look around. We are proud of what we're offering and excited about the future. After weeks of planning and a big push this summer, we are pleased at last to make this announcement. The new site will have useful information and tools to help our community. We've included an "update" section on our homepage that will be used to report news or events that take place. And of course, don't forget our Blog and Twitter. The site is an important first step and we're now focussing our energies on providing a powerful platform to help engage with people. 

We hope you like its bright, lively and minimalistic feel - and hope you'll find your way around easily. A big thank you to all who helped with ideas during our consultation and sent in ideas - as you'll see, I've done my best to take them on board. There are still a few changes to come - but please let us know what you think so far. You know who you are! Be warned, it is not yet fully completed, so if you do find any bugs or errors, please let me know! Also, if you have any suggestions, we would love to hear those too. A number of pages are still in progress, but visit the site frequently as more content about our activities will become available.