Well, while the Mesh Conference in Toronto may now seem like a distant memory, it certainly left some lasting impressions. As we learned in Web 1.0 or, as I like to refer to it, the pre-Jurassic Web -- the reality of the situation on the ground (or, in this case, in the ether) usually lies somewhere between extreme hyperbole and disproportionate skepticism. Such is the case with Web 2.0. As Om Malik told us in his keynote interview on Monday, we'll look back on all this Web 2.0 frenzy and none of it will matter. He may be right, but tell... [More]

Tags:  web2.0 innovation social_computing media mesh06

Our own sales guru Ed Brill is a fierce advocate for the personal and enterprise productivity-enhancing technologies that make up our Lotus portfolio...just stay out of his way if you happen to get him started talking "speeds and feeds" about things Red(mond) v. Blue (and I ain't talking about political states here, either, people). Ed gives us the recap skinny for the announcement yesterday about IBM Workplace and Lotus Notes' support for the SAP platform. Few things in life, or information technology, are free, but you'll Note (sorry,... [More]

Tags:  lotus media web2.0 marketing

...No, not the Vice President of the United States. The other VP's office...the Fortune 500-ish boardroom. The key indicators? First, Stephen Baker from BusinessWeek brings us "The Inside Story on Corporate Blogs." Although he indicates that only 22 of the 500 largest U.S. companies operate public blogs from the executive suite (i.e., 4.4%), Baker notes the real focus has been for companies to build "social networks" and connections with customers -- even as many Fortune-sized companies continue to be "scared" of critical comments in public... [More]

Tags:  database digital_media media

It's amazing the IBM lore you discover one day stumbling around the Internet, even after 14 years of working here. I was travelling down some non-linear Internet rat hole this PM, trying to avoid finishing up a presentation that's due later today, when I discovered that the reason it's not easy for Kermit the Frog to be green is because the Cookie Monster started out by being blue. IBM blue, that is. Cookie Monster Need Coffee Break The story goes like this: Way back in 1966, the year yours truly was born, Jim Henson built a puppet called the... [More]

Tags:  media

The feature on this week's ibm.com home page is "The Future of Sports," and as I read through drafts of some of the story's components -- including listening to the excellent future of sports podcast –- it dawned on me that there may have never been a better time to be an athlete or a sports fan. Full disclosure: My name is Todd, and I'm a sportsaholic. I grew up in north Texas, near Dallas, where football was as close to a religion as one could get without going to church, and where Little League baseball diamonds were a fixture permanently... [More]

Tags:  cio information_management media ibm_software

The man who brought us "Survivor," Mark Burnett, is panning for gold with a new reality game show entitled "Gold Rush." But don't look for it on CBS...it will air via the Web. The real-life reality treasure hunt will air exclusively on AOL.com...how weird did that sound?...and will track "real-life challengers searching for hidden treasure across the U.S." Clues will be placed throughout AOL.com, AIM.com, Moviefone.com, and MapQuest.com, and will also be promoted on other media, including TV, print, and wireless. Burnett made a pretty bold... [More]

Tags:  digital_media media

This just in: Whoa, the Walt Disney Co. has agreed to buy Pixar Animation Studios Inc. for around $7.4B in an all-stock deal. Pixar Chairman and CEO Steve Jobs will take a seat on Disney's board and become the company's largest shareholder. It wasn't long ago that the Disney/Pixar distribution partnership was on the ropes, but evidently Jobs and Disney CEO Bob Iger have mended their "Desperate Housewives" white picket fences and decided it was time to partner up for good. Disney released this statement, in which Steve Jobs indicated that... [More]

Tags:  open_source media