The big players in technology seem to agree that the Internet of Everything (IoE) is a huge transition that will have an impact on many aspects of life, though they still see the shift from their own points of view—not yet with a single coherent vision. That’s the takeaway from the opening panel at Thursday’s Techonomy Lab conference on IoE. On stage were Rob Chandhok of Qualcomm, Dave Evans of Cisco, Paul Rogers of General Electric, and Vijay Sankaran of Ford. “It’s arguably the biggest technology transition of our lifetime,” said Evans—exponentially more impactful than the current Internet. Network speeds are shooting
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Pretend I’m someone who understands the basics of the Internet but has never used a social platform. Now let me ask you: What’s Facebook? What’s Twitter? What’s Instagram? Most answers, at least from the readers of this blog, would be similar. But I’ve got another question. What’s Tumblr? I would bet that at this point the definitions start to differ. “It’s a blogging platform, like WordPress or Typepad.” “It’s a social network where people share all sorts of content.” “It’s a website for theme-based GIF repositories.” For the record, Tumblr defines itself as a platform that “lets you effortlessly share anything” including “text, photos, quotes,
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James Russell, a London based designer, took issue with my post Wednesday about the new Google+ design and how its aesthetic is different from Facebook. He argued that, well, the new Google+ still looks like Facebook and went on to make his case using visuals from both services. Basically, he thinks it is business as usual. I accept his criticism for his reasoning makes sense, but I just don’t agree. I don’t know James, but my sense from reading his post is that he approaches design through a visual lens. Unlike him, I am not a designer and so my way
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Reddit is one strange media company. It is the summation of the Web: inspiring, creative, at times bizarre and profane, and a difficult place to figure out for advertisers. The site is going out to agencies with a pitch that emphasizes its undeniable role as an influencer of digital culture — the average user spends 20 minutes there and visits three times a day — while playing up less-known, more brand-friendly aspects of the site. (There’s a guest appearances from Grump Cat, of course.) In a pitch deck, Reddit sales exec Mike Cole unearths the following nuggets: 1. Reddit not only has
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Yahoo and Twitter have partnered to bring tweets directly into Yahoo homepage’s newsfeed on web and mobile, the company announced this morning. The move follows the February relaunch of the front page. At the time, the company debuted a redesigned site with an increased emphasis on personalization, as well as a more modern design. The Twitter partnership expands upon this earlier mission involving personalization – a key focus for Yahoo’s CEO Marissa Mayer – noting that Yahoo will now ”seamlessly include relevant and personalized tweets alongside stories from Yahoo! and our other sources.” These tweets will now appear directly in the Yahoo
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For years I have been following the fast innovations in technology and, in my mind, I linked them to what positive impact they could have on programming, communication, governance and monitoring or evaluation. Although I have found the sector more than slow in adapting, I finally see some changes happening. This year, 2013, seems to be the year of social media. The disruptive nature of social media forces organisations to look at how they are structured. Social media is not just Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn and turning likes into money or having a sassy website. Online cross-departmental platforms enable us to combine
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According to an early and frequently quoted aerodynamic model, bumblebees cannot possibly fly. Of course, any entomologist or gardener knows that the fuzzy insects make it into the air with great success; the model simply had it wrong. As with bees, so it is with business. Researchers have long held the conceit that innovative entrepreneurship is impossible. “They assert that ‘entrepreneurs can’t do anything new in the economy,’” says Daniel Spulber, a professor of management and strategy at the Kellogg School. This is because established firms have several advantages when it comes to taking inventions to the market. “They have all kinds
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Advertisers are pouring money into social, so publishers are getting creative to offer “social” ads. Time Inc has hit on a gambit: It includes sponsorship messages in social ads that drive users back to Time content sponsored by a brand. Time bills the the effort as an ad unit of its own, but it’s really using Twitter and Facebook for wider distribution — and hopefully a little social juice. An example is a campaign for Walmart that Essence is running. The ad campaign includes sponsorship of a “Best in Black Beauty Awards” section, where Walmart has several run-of-the-mill ad placements. The campaign
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When we announced that Elemental’s Sam Blackman had won the Startup CEO of the Year award at last week’s GeekWire Awards, many of you likely had no idea who Blackman was or what the heck Elemental did as a company. Well, it’s probably time you learn more about one of the region’s fastest-growing startups that’s headed by a Portland native who thinks the Rose City is the next great startup mecca. We made the three-hour trek down to Portland to pay a visit to Elemental’s downtown Portland office and chat with Blackman about his successful company, which helps big media entities seamlessly
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By now you have likely read or heard about Amy’s Baking Company Bakery Boutique & Bistro’s “epic” meltdown on Facebook. The restaurant in Scottsdale, Arizona is owned by Samy and Amy Bouzaglo, and was recently featured on an episode of Gordon Ramsay’s “Kitchen Nightmares”. Apparently, the Bouzaglo’s were such a “nightmare” to work with Ramsay fired them. Customers aren’t exactly fond of Amy’s either; reviews on Yelp call the restaurant “horrible” and accuse the owners of stealing waitresses’ tips. To make matters even worse, the Bouzaglos are notorious for their outrageous responses to these reviews on Yelp. Yesterday’s incident with Amy’s
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