Emerging Technologies You Need to Know

       http://www.youtube.com/debates

We've discussed the ease with which the younger generation uses video to tell a story and how Garage Band (Apple product), which
combines video, text, audio, may be the PowerPoint of the future.  For a first crack, the YouTube-based questions posed to the candidates
and their video-recorded replies are provacative.  Would the ulitimate test of Web 2.0 technologies be their positive influence on
the democratic process or would de Touqueville's premonition be realized ('.. the death of democracy will be when the masses realize
that they can vote themselves largess out of the public purse.)?  perrien







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 Today's (7/24/07) Wall Street Journal (section B1, front page) discusses the use of instant messaging in the corporate enterprise.  Much, if not most, of corporate America does not permit IM on the desktop.   During the past 2 years and especially the last 7 months, as I preach the virtues of Web 2.0 with its purported capabilities for true CRM, innovation thru collaboration, knowledge capture and mining, I'm consistently countered with statements to the effect 'we do not permit IM in our environment.'

'no IM?!'  IBM has had it for nearly 10 years and it's been a huge productivity enhancer.  My own voice mails are down by at least 75% compared to 5 years ago and emails (discounting spam) are down by 50% in 5 years thanks to IM (we use Sametime).  I ask customers if they are really able to keep IM out of the enterprise.  A common reply is 'not really; many use their own cell phones to text one another.'

I think it is a matter of control more than a confidence in a technology.  As we know, culture, manifested as business process, is often the key inhibitor to innovation.  Facts are facts and we should investigate enterprise culture before we promote emerging technologies. perrien





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A useful link from our colleague, John Gerken, regarding the state of mash-ups. This is the space or Web 2.0 technology that will make a difference to the enterprise or those who will truly benefit from the interconnection and wide distribution of corporate information.



"In case you've not seen this yet, below is an interesting new review from Dion on 17 various mashup platforms. He uses a pretty broad definition of "mashup" to include unstructured and structured data mashup makers such as Dapper, Pipes and Kapow, but also makes some very good points I think with regards to enterprise readiness -- things like data availability, security and governance -- as largely unaddresses topics. Also, remember when it was just us (IBM) and JotSpot in this space? My how things have changed."



A bumper crop of new mashup platforms (ZDnet headline)

While application developers tend to roll their eyes, end-user mashups remain one of the year's more promising new trends in software development -- and there appears to be considerable demand for mashups at the enterprise level. Dion Hinchcliffe finds no fewer than 17 platforms currently available that offer credible mashup assembly capabilities today.



http://blogs.zdnet.com/Hinchcliffe/?p=111&tag=nl.e622



perrien



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Google announced on Friday July 20 that it would be up to $4.6 billion for the premiere chunk of the wireless spectrum (700 mhz) that will become available next year. Their stated intentions are consistent with their investments in mobile search capability and their support of the iPhone. Just as the iPod organized the inefficient and uninteresting market of portable mp3 player, Google and the Apple iPhone seek to add coherence, hence value, to the take-it-or-leave-it world of current mobile phone offerings ('this phone comes from this carrier with this set of features. Period). Google intends to turn cell phones into commodities, like televisions or land-line telephones, where a customer buys the device and contracts a carrier such as Verizon or Sprint and adds the software in the form of widgets and gadgets that the customer desires (my iPhone for example, has access to dozens of these small applications in addition to those pre-loaded such as weather, stock prices, address book). There are plenty of regulatory and entrenched competition to overcome (meaning lobbyists at the FCC), but Google has the deep pockets and my teenage son has no interest in his primary screen (cell phone) being only a phone. He wants a true mobile, upgradeable device that he is able to customize to suit his lifestyle. cperrien

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