VJAM is an open-innovation initiative we did with NESTA, the UK’s National Endowment for Science, Technology, and the Arts. We provided seed capital to support the development of an outside development group that has gone on to create some very useful applications for our customers. It created a taxi-sharing app, for example, that lets passengers on the same flight or on flights arriving at a similar time share a taxi ride if they’re going the same way. This saves people money and is better for the environment—and it was all done by developers who are themselves our fans, followers, and customers. Our flight tracker app was developed in a similar way and has also become very popular.
It’s been really fun working with this group; they’re very fired up. Of course, we could have spent a fortune on a glitzier version of all this, but it wouldn’t have been better. What they’ve done is very good, and when you consider the speed at which it was done and the infectious enthusiasm they bring to the table—and the pride they take in the work—it’s just fantastic. And it’s all possible because there was sufficient motivation and engagement out there to convince these people to want to do this for us.
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