Innovative Visions

Of all the things to come out of “Web2.0” (some useful and some entirely useless), I think one of my favorites is NetVibes. For organizing your RSS feeds from across the web (i.e. blogosphere, news sites, product reviews, email, weather, etc.), NetVibes is a wonderful tool I’ve been using for about 10 months. I have a total of close to 60 RSS feeds in seven tabs on my page (which acts as my home page) and it has become a great way of organizing my reading. Needless to say, I was very happy today when I discovered NetVibes2Go. As the title alludes to, point your phone’s browser to: http://m.netvibes.com and you’ll get your login screen with your saved NetVibes settings on the go. Only one recommendation I have for right now and that is to make your first NetVibes tab a “mobile” tab containing all the things you might like to browse on your phone (email, weather, headlines, etc.). You’ll find browsing to be easier and more efficient this way.

Let me know what you think and if you have any other tips and tricks I’d love to hear about them.

I loved the above statement so much I had to share it with y’all. Seriously, I think the latest game is to think of the most bizarre way to misspell common words (or combine random ones for a random meaning) and somehow think this is a good way to express the meaning of your company. This quote was taken from a Digg user by the name of “bornwithrage” and sums up the general opinion nicely. The slightly insensitive, although innocent enough statement, was in reference to the latest and greatest “Top 25” from CNN.com, this time ranking the Top 25 Startups to Watch.

Thanks to another Digg user, HarleyQuinn, the list has been condensed into a readable format which can be seen here. I was going to include the whole list in this post, however I really don’t care about many of them (and have a hard time believing that all of these are relevant to your work either). However, some of them are certainly worth a second look from both a personal and professional standpoint. In addition, I do have a personal favorite on this list which I’ve discussed before: SpotRunner.com. Watch out for big things to come from this very talented crew…

I want to apologize for being out of touch again recently, but there are only so many things I can do at once. As I’ve mentioned before, I am an expert multi-tasking machine, with 10 browsers, four email accounts, three phone lines and three instant messenger accounts all going at once (along with the hyper Mini Schnauzer to keep track of). However, I have been working on a couple of projects lately which have demanded more than their fair share of time. Not that I’m complaining, but I miss communicating to the masses from time to time (i.e. blogging about some useful and some useless subjects which some people might actually care about).

Last night however, I did get the opportunity to attend the bi-monthly Web Innovators Group of Boston. Boston, (2^nd only to Silicon Valley in technology innovation), is a buzz these days (and not only because of the Mooninites which took over the city today), but because of all of the great concepts being shown the light of day (and a healthy side dish of venture capital always present).

Check out the WebInno site for links and great information about the eight featured companies from last night. There were some good ideas with real-world applicability, and there were a few which were marketed towards a smaller, niche market. However, while listening to all of the various presentations about what widget does what and how and with what other services, I realized something else; slightly related, as always.

LinkedIn, the preeminent professional social networking site has just recently received another $13million in funding…. Why? Well, honestly I don’t think they need it (despite the lack of a couple of crucial features), but more importantly, because the word “LinkedIn” was mentioned every five minutes last night. I’m serious when I say that every single presentation, no matter what the product or service being marketed or discussed, LinkedIn was somehow referred to… In certain circles, they have almost reached “verb status” just like Google… That is why they received the extra funding. They now have to campaign and sell their service as if they were a new and exciting word in the English language. Let’s just call it the Webster’s charge.

*EDIT: In case you were wondering who those “terrorists” were who put up Mooninites flipping us off all over Boston yesterday, here is the evidence.

Are you experiencing information overload when trying to research a particular subject or project? What sort of information management system do you use to organize and direct your search towards the most appropriate result? There are times when I will put the direction of my search in the very capable hands of Google, however if I want specific, relevant links which the “tech community” perceives as such, I use Del.icio.us. If you haven’t yet experienced this form of search and management, I suggest you give it a try. Start by going to our tags at: del.icio.us/IVforBusiness and let me know what you think. Now, I must warn you that you too may become enthralled in the various island living arrangements or great dog training facilities that I have also tagged on this site, however the majority of our tags will open you to a dynamic way of searching for the references which matter most to you and your company.

Recently I’ve been doing a lot of reading, discussing/debating and writing on Web2.0 and its implications, definitions and future. I’d like to take a moment to clarify just a couple of things and point you to a great piece written by Loic Le Meur. In it he goes further than most I’ve seen with his definition of what exactly Web2.0 is and what it means to us. He says that in order for something to be considered Web2.0, it must possess three characteristics:

1)      Easy to publish

2)      Discoverable

3)      Control of your own data

While I agree with all of these points and this definition is good, it isn’t complete. As I mentioned in my post on “The State of Media and Content Delivery to Consumers” in order for something to truly be considered Web2.0 in my opinion, it must be “converged, interactive and highly available content.” With all of this included, I think we’ve defined our possibilities and limits. Here comes Web3.0! More on this later!  J

I’d like to follow up on a point from yesterday’s post where I mention that the US now has the ability to perhaps lead the charge into Web2.0 with fully integrated and customized content and services.

“Many imply (including Malik) that, like many other technology innovations (such cellular services), Europe and Asia will probably be at the forefront of this wave.”

As with cellular services of yesterday, our future success depends on government involvement today. Normally I’m not one to promote the idea of government officials tampering with technology, because they generally don’t have a clue what their talking about (i.e. Bush referring to such things as “The Google” and stating that he doesn’t “trust email”). But, let me give you an example of how this has helped in the past.

In the 90’s as cell phone services were coming into broader use around the world, the French government decided to do something interesting. It went around France and purchased all of the cellular companies, standardized them all on one technology and then released them back to the private sector. What did this do? Well, it ensured that all R&D from then on would be done on ONE technology.

As much as I love US capitalism, it is the primary reason why we can’t have mobile video conferencing features in the palm of our hand. Imagine what we could have done if Sprint, Verizon, AT&T and all of the other cell companies in the country were working on the same technology this whole time?!?

In the same fashion, I believe it’s time for the US government to take a stand and ensure that every single household and business in this country has broadband access to the Internet; and soon! Without this access our economy will continue to fall behind those of developing nations. As Michael J. Copps, a member of the Federal Communication Commission wrote in Wednesday’s Washington Post, “America’s record in expanding broadband communication is so poor that it should be viewed as an outrage by every consumer and businessperson in the country. Too few of us have broadband connections, and those who do pay too much for service that is too slow. It’s hurting our economy, and things are only going to get worse if we don’t do something about it.”

Amen, Mr. Copps. He goes on to state how this can be done in this great op-ed piece. First, the FCC has to redefine what it calls “broadband.” Our “broadband” is 20 times slower than the rest of the world and we’re paying 3 times as much for it. Hopefully, we can listen to him and do something about our world ranking of 15^th in broadband penetration. 15^th!!!

Today, November 9^th, marks the last day of the third annual Web2.0 Conference (just renamed Web2.0 Summit) held at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco. While there have been many interesting new projects announced, joint ventures ventured and creativity using the Internet is obviously booming, I have my doubts about the true use of some of these companies. So many of them are innovative, but is there really a market demand for 3D web browsing and a system to divide and monitor shared expenses?

Personally, I’m all over exploring these things because this is my life, 24/7. But how many people outside the world of technology will find these innovations useful in the next couple of years? My point is that there are other companies out there which are changing the way we live our daily lives TODAY. Web2.0 is about converged, interactive and highly available content and I want these things now. As Amazon.com’s Jeff Bezos commented at the Summit, “Amazon’s Web Services will be meaningful business.” Note that he’s speaking in the future tense.

Webware.com has done a nice job delivering the news from the Web2.0 Summit and it’s certainly worth a read to see where we might be headed in three years, but let’s talk about what’s changing now, how all of this might come together to make a meaningful change in our lives today and into tomorrow and of course let’s think about the many revenue-generating opportunities this creates.

I have wanted to write about this subject for about a year and a half, ever since I first watched “Epic 2014” which discusses the future of the “Google Grid” and its hypothesized takeover of all media, content, advertising and delivery. Then, a couple of weeks ago I was reading more about IPTV/Internet Television and the possibilities of this form of content delivery, and that’s when things really started to come together in my mind.

Brightcove.com, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts has already developed a model to deliver custom and targeted advertising to IPTV viewers and created the video marketplace to provide the content as well (useful competition with YouTube?). Michael Kanellos with CNET News.com wrote at the end of October, “For example, a news site on extreme sports could get a feed on foreign surf competitions from an established news agency like Reuters, resell or syndicate its own clips to online outdoor-clothing merchants, and put ads in the videos it produces.”

Another company leading the way is Spot Runner which “provides commercial production, media planning and media buying services to help local businesses make ‘ads’ cheaply for local TV.”

And, Spot Runner just received another $40 Million in funding from such advertising and media giants as WPP, CBS Corporation and Interpublic Group. Imagine Brightcove and Spot Runner coming together to provide their services in a combined, converged format? And imagine how far they’ve come with their offerings since these pieces were written! This is where we are leading…

On October 31^st of this year, Om Malik of GigaOM.com discussed the possibility of an IPTV boom in the making. In it, he quotes Jeff Heynen of Infonetics Research, ‘“IPTV is still in the ‘kick the tire’ phase, with service providers doing trials rather than mass deployments, but there’s no question that IPTV is going mainstream.”’ Many imply (including Malik) that, like many other technology innovations (such cellular services), Europe and Asia will probably be at the forefront of this wave. However, with companies like Spot Runner, Brightcove and ChoiceStream adapting their thinking in the US, we may have a chance to claim this one first.

DirecTV announced this week that they have partnered up with the Cambridge, Mass. based company ChoiceStream, to enable their customers to rate programming and receive personalized recommendations. Erica Ogg, of CNET News.com wrote more about the implications of this move yesterday. This is just one of ChoiceStream’s partnerships (others include Yahoo and eMusic) to provide customized advertising and content delivery.

Now, all of these companies, their services and many, many others are combining to create the future of information access, media and content delivery and the associated and relevant advertising to boot. Donna Bogatin of ZDNet, has researched and writes about this age of ultimate convergence on a daily basis. One of her recent blog posts summarizes a part of this path (IPTV) quite nicely I think:

“The proposed framework for combining mass media with a highly personalized Web-based experience “listens” to ambient audio and connects the viewer with services and related content on the Web via three-components:

· a client-side interface

· an audio-database server

· a social-application Web server

“Will we soon see Google ITV?”

While Google ITV is a possibility, there will be other options available before that happens. With the increasing adoption of bandwidth in the home and the encroaching FIOS (Fiber to the home), “Triple Play” will take on new meaning very, very soon. Telecommunications and cable companies are already going head to head to be the first and best to market with their offerings, but the channel to deliver the services is only part of the package. It will be companies like Spot Runner, Brightcove, ChoiceStream and many others that will really make the difference in providing the “complete experience.”

Your comments are more than welcome.