IPhone Early Design Exposure

As a present to myself for my retirement I bought an Iphone. I had been a user of a corporate issued Blackberry for about four years, so this was a pretty new experience. I had also recently heard a Google exec speak very glowingly about how revolutionary the IPhone was.

So far my experience has been mixed. I am not an Itunes user, and only sometimes listen to podcasts, so that aspect is not big for me. The 'real' browser is good and that has been convenient, but I am not always in places that provide wi-fi, and the AT&T Edge network is abysmally slow, so that has been a disappointment.

Regards interface, I was surprised that there were inconsistencies. Delete is not always done the same way, for example. I am not used to touch interfaces, so have found myself selecting and even deleting things that I did not plan to. Compared to the BBerry, the qwerty typing interface is error-prone and slow, annoying if you answer many messages with more than a line or two.

The physical design of the phone itself does look a little 50s. Was it really inspired by Braun? Perhaps, based on some of the pics I have seen. I like the minimal number of buttons, but I think a more modern and striking design could have been used. And again, I think consistency of usability design could have been thought through more carefully.

I see that the Iphone 2.0 interface will be addressing some of these problems, but the very simplest issues of synchronizing your contacts and calendars between laptop and mobile are problematic. I figured out ways to make these work, but it took too much effort. Though I am no longer within a large enterprise, there are security and syncing issues for that context as well.

Still getting used to it. If you have plans to get one, suggest you play with a friend's before jumping in.

Big Mobile Coupon Test

In today's AdAge, good example of using a mobile phone based coupon repository. Being tested by several large consumer goods coupons and Kroger, using Kroger's loyalty system. The vendor is cellfire, where you can get a better idea of their method:

"Package-Goods Giants Roll Out Mobile Coupons
P&G, Clorox, Del Monte, K-C, General Mills Team With Kroger to Try to Make Promotions Relevant to Younger Consumers

SAN FRANCISCO (Adage.com) -- Five top package-goods manufacturers are using mobile phones in an effort to revive the art of coupon redemption.

Procter & Gamble, Clorox, Del Monte, General Mills and Kimberly-Clark are teaming with retail giant Kroger for what will almost certainly be the biggest test of wireless coupons to date and perhaps even one of the most significant ventures into mobile marketing in the U.S. The aim is to reach the generation between 25 and 34 who are likely to have growing families in need of baby, home-cleaning and household products, but who don't read a lot of newspapers.

"Promotions still work -- the problem is finding where we need to talk to them in a relevant way," said Irma Tavilian, baby-care and childcare consumer promotional marketing team leader at Kimberly-Clark. "The whole industry is trying to figure out these channels." Roger Entner, senior VP-communications sector at IAG Research, went so far as to predict "Mobile couponing is the future -- hands down." Besides avoiding the fuss and muss of cutting out coupons, he said, mobile coupons are never forgotten at home ... "

Solar Power Singularity

Back as early as the energy crunch of the 70s I have been reading about when various alternative energy technologies would be economically feasible to replace fossil fuel. These levels have always been exceeded, without much happening in alternatives. I remember $50 a barrel in particular as a holy grail level that would cause all sorts of infrastructure to change. Surprise, not much has happened. Now TCS suggests that the solar energy singularity is at hand.

Presenting Your Phone for Payment

There are now a number of large tests of NFC (Near Field Communication) now underway. The most interesting application of this technology is the capability of using cell phones for payment. A chip is placed in a phone, the vendor has a reader to capture the needed data, some validation is performed. The cellphone as a wallet. Evan Schuman writes about the underlying training issues. I have never presented my phone for payment anywhere, so I can understand the confusion that could result. But I still remember when presenting a credit card to a vendor was viewed with skepticism. It's only a matter of time.

Big Switch

I finished Nicholas Carr's The Big Switch, Rewiring the World, From Edision to Google. Overall a good read. He starts with an interesting technology history lesson that he later uses to make a point about where he believes all these computing resources are migrating. I like historical examples and his current-day tales, but the connection is tenuous. I also have his Roughtype Blog on my feed, so I was ready for some of his arguments, somewhat restated here, that there are some dangers looming from some of the big players out there, you know who they are. His writing makes you think, but some of his points are labored. Why shouldn't I be just as worried about all the hardware be in central places as I should be about new players such as Google providing all the software? He also seems to be very worried that Google's founders are interested in AI. If they were not, others would be. Carr is a journalist, not a computer scientist, so sometimes his focus is on what is in the press or who he has talked to lately rather than what is really relevant. Overall argument is that the world is being re-wired as we speak, in somewhat unexpected ways, and there will be some side-effects we will need to prepare for. Agree. He has some interesting focus points here. The book is non-technical but it will be most interesting to those involved in high tech. See also the book's web site, some excerpts are there to get a flavor for the book.

Law and Virtual Environments

A discussion of how corporate counsel should think about virtual environments like Second Life. I agree that there are lots of issues lurking there, especially when you start doing marketing and commerce.

Coffee Makers

Alex Pang over at IFTF's Future Now blog, where I used to contribute, writes about the Clover 1S Coffee maker, quoting a recent Slate article. I used to work in P&G's coffee division, mostly dealing with how coffee blends are created. Even learned to do formal coffee tasting. For a while P&G even made single dosage coffee machine, not sure if they still do. Alex muses over if an $11,000 coffee machine is decadence or pure technological progress. He thinks the latter, I agree, though I think you could get the 80 for 20 here with a little training and some off-the-shelf, much cheaper machines.

AARP Digital Community

The AARP Digital Community, which I had the chance to test in early beta, is now up and running. Here is a tour. A community FAQ, and community help group. AARP has a large existing membership that it hopes to turn into a social community. Good first step. An opportunity indeed.

The Social Graph

Dion Hinchcliffe on The Social Graph: Issues and Strategies in 2008. Instructive overview piece on the subject.

CSIS Forecast Maps

Via Steve King: The Center for Strategic and International Studies has released a forecast map. Graphically reminiscent of transit maps.

New Wal-Mart Blog

A new Wal-Mart Blog, called Check Out, is described in the NY Times. The blog is written by WM buyers and and is described as particularly candid. I did a quick scan of recent posts, and it is refreshingly open. There are nine authors covering a number of product categories. They are getting a small number of moderated comments. This is the kind of blog that works, but is rarely done by large companies outside the technology world.

LinkedIn vs Facebook

A good Computerworld article compares Linkedin and Facebook for six business problems. Its clear that LinkedIn looks more professional in it's typical application, but which addresses typical business networking problems better? Along the way you get an introduction to the serious capabilities of each. LinkedIn has also announced API capabilities that could make it more flexible. Also, more on the integration of third party applications.

Application Design

Jakob Nielsen's post: Top Ten Design Mistakes came to my attention. A good read. His fairly well known previous article summarizes: " ... To design an easy-to-use interface, pay attention to what users do, not what they say. Self-reported claims are unreliable, as are user speculations about future behavior ... ". I just got an IPhone and am now using it as my primary phone. Although it has a very interesting interface, there are a number of inconsistencies in how you do things. Have now only used it for a few days, and am still learning.

Be Identified

Now that I am responsible for my own infrastructure I am taking more notice of the risk of using specific methods. I was quite surprised, after changing my hardware, to start being challenged by Google's blogger. Many of you have probably seen the challenge, where you have to read a distorted set of letters, to prove you are not a sim, This is called a captcha. Last night this happened several times in a row. The letters I had to read were so distorted I had to try several times. I felt somewhat put off by this. Am I a machine or human? Am I depending too much on Google's usually excellent services?

Functional Chocolates

In Confectionary News, Functional Chocolates, the term was new to me. Chocolate treats could be used for some sort of specific pick-me-up or even over the counter claim seems to be a very big idea and is spreading.

Done

Well I am finally done, retired, complete and finished with the big soap company. This marks my thirtieth year. Although I only worked there for 27 years. I spent a few years working a start-up, which is yet another story.

I started as part of the analytics and graphics group, first primarily doing applications of optimization for the supply chain. This was in the early days of being able to readily visualize results interactively on a computer. It turned out to be a very effective way to make things clearly understandable. So we implemented things like visualized woodland harvesting plans, supply network options and simulation results. Simulate, optimize and visualize the results, that worked well.

The next big chunk of work had to do with what in the late 80s was very optimistically called 'artificial intelligence'. What we mostly implemented was called 'expert systems'. We collaborated with several of the big players then, notably Teknowledge. We had a dozen or so folks in our team, and built a number of systems to do things like coffee blending, machine analysis and selection and even stain analysis. There were a number of successes, some very lucrative, but we never matched the speed or expectation of management. So after a few years success was declared and the group disbanded. Too soon I think, there were many opportunities we had in the hopper that could have prevailed.

In the early 90s, well before Mash-ups and Google maps, we implemented systems that used Geographical Information Systems (GIS) as front-ends to help management to make difficult choices whose results would impact the design of corporate systems. Really a mix of simple optimization and simulation, with output and input taken from GIS interfaces

Then we looked at the idea of immersive innovation. This started with skunk works home and store centers that built contexts for understanding and engagement with consumers and other organizations. Despite all the cynical IBM ads, these can result in some powerful engagement dynamics.

In the last few years I have been involved in the practical application of Web 2.0 capabilities to track the application and implementation of emergent technologies using blogs. What I did during this time was to track everything I did using an internal blog, which I left behind as an archive when I retired. This is a useful example of knowledge management, a means to easily capture a stream of knowledge, and allow you to stream it back as needed later on. The blog was read by thousands a week internally, and led to lots of consulting relationships.

Now on to new challenges.

L'Oreal Sponsors Greenies in Second Life

L'Oreal has become a sponsor of the Greenies alien land in Second Life, much more here. I don't see the useful connection, except that they are giving away virtual L'Oreal product, but worth examining.

The Limits of Quantum Computing

In the March Sciam, an article "The Limits of Quantum Computing", a very good overview of the idea of quantum computing and it's limitations. Though the Sciam article is not onine, there is a draft by Scott Aaronson available. Introduction to the complexity of problems realm and how it relates to real-world problems. Though this is important stuff, it is technical and only people with a strong topical interest in math should venture in. The Wpedia also covers the topic well. The published Sciam article does it's best to dumb down the topic with pictures. Where exactly has the Scientific American gone? Read it since the 60s, and now it has abandoned anything other than pop-sci masquerading as depth.

Aaronson is an MIT Prof well known for publishing in this area. Notable is his complexity zoo site. And his blog. The article is also interestingly described and commented on in Slashdot.

Beyond AI

Just brought to my attention: Beyond AI: Creating the Conscience of the Machine, by J. Storrs Hall. AI topics are always of interest. According to the overview, a strong view of ethics issues.

Hitachi's RFID Powder

Could developments like Hitachi's RFID powder be used to make product counterfeiting much more difficult? It's a big issue in consumer goods. At what cost?

Kurzweil Predicts Exponential Change

These kinds of predicted advances have implications beyond game-playing. Games are very analogous to simulations, which can be used to do new kinds of predictive analytics. Games are also interactive, which also predicts new ways to integrate simulations with live people. Of course it is not just about hardware, its above divining software that will efficiently solve the problem.

" ... As microprocessors are progressively able to perform more calculations for less money, we can expect to see the price-to-performance ratio of computers improve a billionfold over the next 25 years, predicted Ray Kurzeil during his keynote speech at the Game Developers Conference. Kurzweil says that modern electronics are so powerful that the other fields that rely on them will be subject to advancements at the same rate as the chips that power them, and that software will ultimately become the limiting factor. "You can't ignore the exponential projections," Kurzweil says. "If you're programming a game or any type of information-based technology two or three years from now, the world's going to be completely different." Kurzweil says that previously unrelated fields will essentially become information technology fields due to the growth in the power of computer devices. For example, he says artificial red blood cells could eventually duplicate the work of the real thing, only 1,000 more efficiently. "Biology is very capable and intricate and clever," Kurzweil says, "but it's also very suboptimal, compared to what we ultimately can build with information technology and nanotechnology." ... "

Wozniak Again

Here is a new interview in Knowledge@Wharton with Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple. Previously I reviewed his quirky autobiographical book: iWoz. Wozniak was the technical brains of Apple while and after he worked at HP. Steve Jobs became the visionary marketing partner. Since then Wozniak has sponsored a number of interesting but until now unsuccessful start-ups.

Bloggers and Influence

Joseph Carrabis, who I have briefly mentioned here, writes about Bloggers, Influence and Your Brand. He has some interesting takes on the nature of blogger types and how they influence.

Viewing Talent Needs as a Supply Chain

An interesting view of talent needs, from Knowledge@Wharton, look at them as a supply chain:

" ... This is a fundamentally different paradigm in terms of thinking about talent," according to Cappelli, the author of a book coming out in April titled, Talent on Demand: Managing Talent in an Age of Uncertainty. His theory, he suggests, addresses a major complaint about the field of human resources -- that it is "touchy-feely, squishy stuff with little applicability to business problems. HR practices have typically been about meeting individuals' needs, figuring out what psychological profile they fit and what should be done to help them grow and advance. But if you're an employer who is worried about issues like the finances of the company, you would like HR to think about personnel from the perspective of money and costs, and what happens if you don't have the right people in place to do the necessary jobs." .... "

Is the Tipping Point Toast?

Good Fast Company article on the 'Tipping Point' controversy that I had missed. We spoke to Watts at a Sante Fe Institute meeting some years ago and he expressed skepticism about direct application of his methods to corporate marketing.

Wal-Mart Learns from Mobile

Evan Schuman writes about Wal-Mart's learnings in mobile advertising.

Goat Commerce on a Cell Phone

Recently seen . A novel example of how mobile commerce is being used effectively in the third world. In particular the payment aspect of this example. Via Khurram Hamid. Will we eventually have cell phones replace cards, which have now been around commonly since the 70s. ? Will there be an intermediate phase with touchless cards? Evan Schuman discusess a bit of the psychology of the phenomenon. I am more optimistic that the transition will be made soon.

Chandler Lost

Mitch Kapor's Chandler project here. The plug has finally been pulled. It may be released in open source form. Scott Rosenberg's 2007 book: Dreaming in Code, was in part about Chandler's development. Looked at this fairly closely as a possible generalized personal information management system, but it's delay led to other approaches. The book is a good read for the those interested in the mix of sociology and coding.

Scanning Images of Familiar Objects

A broad step forward in understanding how patterns of the brain change during thought:

Carnegie Mellon Study Identifies Where Thoughts Of Familiar Objects Occur Inside the Human Brain
A team of Carnegie Mellon University computer scientists and cognitive neuroscientists, combining methods of machine learning and brain imaging, have found a way to identify where people's thoughts and perceptions of familiar objects originate in the brain by identifying the patterns of brain activity associated with the objects. An article in the Jan. 2 issue of PLoS One discusses this new method ... A dozen study participants enveloped in an MRI scanner were shown line drawings of 10 different objects - five tools and five dwellings -one at a time and asked to think about their properties. Just and Mitchell's method was able to accurately determine which of the 10 drawings a participant was viewing based on their characteristic whole-brain neural activation patterns. To make the task more challenging for themselves, the researchers excluded information in the brain's visual cortex, where raw visual information is available, and focused more on the "thinking" parts of the brain .. "

OR Drives Success at Procter & Gamble

Was just sent this BNet article about how Operations Research (OR) is used at P&G. Very good overview. When I joined P&G in 1977 this is what I did for the first 15 years or so.

Launching Old Spice Pro Strength

Below, an item I was sent on the launch of Old Spice Pro-Strength. You may have seen part of the launch on the SuperBowl. See their new site, which links you to a number of media examples. A press release. Check it out. I see that some of the videos are already on Youtube. I must not be the target of this.

"Let's Get Clinical: Launching Old Spice Pro-Strength
Old Spice is launching Pro-Strength Antiperspirant behind an innovative Media plan that heavily leverages Branded Entertainment and Interactive Media.

Old Spice has partnered with Will Ferrell and Newline Cinema's to co-market Old Spice Pro-Strength and the Semi-Pro. Old Spice has seen strong results in the past with movie tie-ins including the 2006 release of Talladega Nights. Old Spice also has a strong history of leadership within emerging digital channels including iMedia, Broadband, and Gaming. With the Pro-Strength campaign, Old Spice is scaling these efforts to new heights behind one of P&G's largest online media spends...."

Attention Markets in the Classroom

You have seen it increasingly of late. People in a meeting with laptops open, typing away. Well, are they fully participating in the meeting or not? Old-school, I try to be polite and lower my screen to at least half-mast. This has become a big issue in higher ed. In fact at the U of Pa I talked to a person involved with Wharton's new room designs who said initially their classrooms were designed specifically to not include wireless capability, to prevent distraction, but he admitted they were reconsidering the approach. Here is a rather heavy-handed response, called Synchroneyes, in a higher ed blog. Is attention at work or school just a market?

Shel Israel Interviews Michael Dell About Blogs

Shel Israel interviews Michael Dell, mostly about blogging in New Communications Review, as part of their SAP Global Survey on Social Media.

Human Level AI by 2029

In the BBC: Machines will achieve human-level artificial intelligence by 2029, a leading US inventor has predicted. At the right, artists impression of how nanomachines will roam the body curing disease. The most optimistic pundit on this topic, Ray Kurzweil, is interviewed in 2005.

Small Business Labs

Steve King is a longtime correspondent from IFTF and Thingmagic. He gave an excellent talk at our recent Ecommerce workshop. Some time ago he sent me an address of his Small Biz Labs blog: Tracking the Future of Small Business. I did not follow it closely then, but in re-examination its really a general personal blog, with applications to technology of interest to all size companies.

GS1 on Mobile Commerce

I have pointed to earlier drafts of this report, it is now available in final form:Mobile Commerce: challenges and opportunities. GS1 is an important global standards body for all variants of wireless capabilities including RFID and cell communications. P&G is on GS1's global board. Contributed to several drafts. Joe Horwood of GS1writes that the paper will be continually updated. If you have any interest in mobile commerce, it's worth reading.

Future of Small Business

Steve King writes, and passes along a link to an interesting article I am now reading:

We just released the 3rd edition of the Future of Small Business report. It is called The New Artisan Economy. This was a joint effort by IFTF, Intuit and Emergent Research (my firm). The report and related materials are at: www.intuit.com/futureofsmallbusiness. The report applies relevant IFTF forecasts and analysis to the small business sector. Because of this, those familar with IFTF and their forecasts will recognize much of the work. It also includes data and insights gleened from Intuit's extensive market research on the small business sector.

Thanks to co-author Anthony Townsend and contributors Alex Pang and David Pescovitz -whose work on the future of manufacturing we proudly plagiarized.

Beating Heart Haptics

Yury Gitman writes via Future Commons:

I thought you'd be interested in hearing about a project I just updated. Back in 2005 I posted here about a high-tech product/art piece I was hand-making and selling. It was/is called My Beating Heart. In short, it's a heart-shaped pillow with a haptic (physical) heartbeat. The thing that makes it novel and unique is that there's a custom made micro inside that I've programmed to algorithmically model the human heart in a deep meditative state. As people hug the heart, their own hearts begin to sync with My Beating Heart's rhythm and it helps them relax and nap ... My Beating Heart ... more about the design and technology.

Braun Designs Inspired Apple

From Gizmodo and The Guardian. I saw a Braun design symposium a few years ago, and read of Braun's design competitions, very impressive.

" ... Apple has been inspired by design from Braun and Braun's design principles established back in the late 1950s and 1960s. The iPhone is Apple’s latest example to reveal similarities with a Braun product -- the calculator graphics of the iPhone mirrors the design of Braun’s calculators almost identically.

This is a great example of how Braun has been at the forefront of innovation since the middle of the last century. Braun has implemented a holistic innovation concept where superior design plays a fundamental role in building the brand and creating a culture of brand excellence. The Braun principle of "less but better design" is reflected in Apple designer, Jonathan Ive’s passion for "simplicity" and "honest design." ... '

Brain Scanning the SuperBowl

Short Ad Age video on brain-scanning Superbowl Ads. Can be downloaded as a podcast. You may need to register, and after a short while they cease being free. This has now been done for at least three years. Details on the work done by Sands Research.

The results do not match well with other ad popularity polls, for example the much praised Tide to Go commercial got low brain activity, though no one knows exactly what this means. Attention perhaps, but will it lead to remembering or buying the item when shopping? The video also gets some terminology wrong, calling it neuroeconomics, which is related to but not the same as neuromarketing. These techniques have started to receive mainstream interest, from Nielsen for example. I am convinced that there will be substantial results from these and related methods.

Update: For something new, see twitter ratings of the ads.

War Games and AI

I just watched the 1983 film War Games. I closely follow the history of computing, and this is a fun watch to see how much things have changed since 25 years ago. This was one of the first films that positioned AI and security in a generally plausible way. In the realm of that day it was difficult for the average person to search for knowledge to perform a task. At that time the Internet did exist, I had used it as part of the Darpanet. The Web did not, and a high school student would have had a very hard time getting the knowledge they needed.

So what has happened? Now it is possible to search very broadly and very quickly. Defense systems are on separate networks and likely much more secure. Likely. Some of the suggestions of the interaction of real world and simulated systems are impressive for the time, though the security gaps are not credible.

Shortly after I first saw the film I was part of a corporate AI team that sought to implement some of the Artificial intelligence implied by the film. Large scale strategic gaming directed and optimized by computing systems. Taking simple games like checkers and chess and scaling them up to real interactions that include choice making, simulations and fallible people. The promise was a big one. Systems that could run large portions of corporations in a 'lights off' mode. Making product fast, cheaper, better.

Although there were lots of small victories that resulted from these corporate efforts, the big win never happened. What worked best were very narrow applications of AI to corporate process. Difficult too was the attempt to build intelligence that could be readily re-applicable. Bigger wins made it necessary to link many systems, many choices and many indeterminate interactions.

You can readily construct individual rules, simulations, pattern tasks and computations. You can string them together in a program or declare them as a set of knowledge statements. But eventually this falls apart. The sum of these knowledge nuggets becomes less useful in aggregate without some combining structure. Though there is AI theory that covers this, its hard to implement in real systems.

So it's not easy to build generalized intelligence systems. It was also seen early on that it was not easy to insert people in the loop to interact with an intelligent system. More recently, linking decision makers with very complex simulations has shown promise. The AI factor is still not readily available in a generalized way. Will it happen? I think so, but there is still some some fundamental first principle work to do, perhaps another 25 years.

I would love to see examples of how other corporate attempts at the broad implementations of AI succeeded or not. And in particular, what were the key barriers to this kind of work? Part of it is a better understanding of how to integrate low level intelligence tasks.

The film, despite it's age, covers some interesting space and is worth a watch. The final resolution, though, is laughable.

Nielsen Buys into Neuromarketing

It's about using biometrics to determine the reaction of people to stimuli. The best known examples are of the 'lie detector' kind, though these stumble on various interpretations of truth. What has seen the most interest of late are brain-scans that show patterns of brain blood flow. They have been used to evaluate Superbowl commercials and compare product designs. Much skepticism still exists, and many companies are spooked by PR fallout from methods that are perceived as too invasive. Much experimentation underway:

In the Neuromarketing Blog:

" ... Has neuromarketing arrived? If not, it has reached a new plateau of credibility as the privately held Nielsen Company has invested in NeuroFocus, a firm that uses brainwave, eye-tracking and skin conductance measurements to measure consumer reactions to ads and products. Nielsen, best known for its television viewership ratings, has a diverse portfolio of businesses involved in media and marketing ... "

Press release.

3D Virtual Design for the Novice

3-D Design for the Masses
Dryad's new user interface aims to make it easier for novices to create realistic objects for virtual worlds. A very simple idea that makes it easy to construct 3D objects by selecting them and then modifying them. Its all about trees right now, but you could see where this could go. Their site.

Kleenex, Anthropology and New Branding

An anthropologist favorably analyzes the Kleenex 'Let it Out' ad campaign. See the Let it Out website. The site includes a blog, and some consumer generated media.

Adapting to Consumer-Controlled Surveillance

Clickz article by Blackshaw that touches some interesting points.

Google Analytics Install

I continue to make some changes to this blog. Yesterday I added Google Analytics functionality. Was fairly easy. Most of the problems I encountered existed on the Blogger side. Along the way I lost some confidence in Google products. I tried to add it as a Java/HTML block, but somehow the save would not work. So I edited it into the HTML code. It seems to be recording hits to the blog now. Along the way I discovered EpikOne, a company that does consulting and training for GA, and also has a useful scanner that will check out your site to see if GA has been properly installed. Its also useful to go to the Google Analytics Blog where the latest in tools and updates can be found. I have used GA for over a year now on internal sites and it works well.

Ford Tags Tools

This week Ford has announced a new capability for truck fleets it sells to contractors. In collaboration with DeWalt tools, the tools will be tagged with an RFID tag. The truck will then be able to detect if all the tools are in place. Results is fewer lost tools. Also useful for service applications where the dispatched truck needs to have some subset of tools available for a job. Results in fewer wasted trips. Thingmagic, who also works with us, is providing the tagging solutions for this. Clever use of the technology, making systems aware of their contexts. Free cup of coffee for an internal use of this idea Here is their brochure of the solution. Via Steve King. More details on the announcement, which further details the truck as an office concept.

Virtual China

The Institute for the Future, who we have worked with since the late 70s has a blog called Virtual China.

" ... Virtual China is an exploration of virtual experiences and environments in and about China. The topic is also the primary research area for the Institute for the Future's Asia Focus Program in 2006. IFTF is an independent, nonprofit strategic research group with more than 35 years of forecasting experience based in Palo Alto, CA. ...

Just started to follow it again, a rich source of internet activities in China.

Finland's SMS Toilets

Finland's public roadside toilets are now openable only with a cellphone SMS text message.

Web 2.0 Applications

Colleagues point to an excellent index of Web 2.0 applications that can replace much of the for-pay bloatware that we use every day. Free applications on the Web that do most everything you need. Having this all in one place makes it easy to see the progress here. Is it only a matter of time before we get all of our software this way?

Project Management as a Service

Microsoft Project has been in use here for some time. I have used it for two large projects. I have just had the chance to look at project management Saas (Software as a service), two cases, Central Desktop and Basecamp. There are others, but these seem to be the most used. It's is often hard to manage large projects if you cannot precisely divide it into tasks.

I have always thought that it was more important to deliver stronger collaboration, than precisely predicted time lines. That's exactly what these packages try to do. I would guess that MS Project is more bloated with options, and thus harder to use as well. Note my experience with MS Project is now several years old. I found these other packages fairly easy to pick up. As software-as-a-service becomes more common, check these out. Does anyone know of others worth looking at? A sample Central Desktop review.

Cucina.com

Colleague Pete Blackshaw has set up a site that collects video recipes. Cucina.com A nice idea, which tries to capture some of the cultural background behind the recipes, beyond the stale, dry recipe cards. I am a long-time amateur cook, so the idea is compelling. May do one myself.

Leonardo Science

Just completed Fritjof Capra's The Science of Leonardo: Inside the Mind of the Great Genius of the Renaissance. The last book of Capra's I had read was The Tao of Physics and somehow have missed all his books since then. Leonardo's work has seen quite a bit of interest in the last twenty years. I had last read Charles Nicholl's Da Vinci bio: Flights of Mind, which impressed me with its focused detail. ( Nicholl's newest book: The Lodger, about a very thin but interesting slice of Shakespeare's life, is on the stack).

Capra's book looks at Leonardo's life and focuses on how his work predated a number of scientific discoveries hundreds of years later. As Capra points out, only about half of Leonardo's journal pages survive, so it's sometimes impossible to make conclusions about his final results. Some of his intermediate conclusions are wrong, so did he correct them later or not? Capra suggests so, but with little clear evidence. Even so, there are lots of fascinating examples.

As a person with background and interest in physics, I was particular taken by some of his work regarding the nature and behavior of light and the propagation of wave energy, predating Newton. His experience as a painter and a practical anatomist helped him think about how light interacted with our visual system in a number of novel ways. Also notable, his life-long interest and experience with turbulence.

Leonardo did not use symbolic mathematics, and his method of geometric argument, partly described in the appendix, is worth looking at. This also led to a 'science born of experience' that is more akin to today's social sciences than the use of math in the physical sciences. Making it even more amazing that he developed what he did. Since he did not publish and most of his work ended up being disregarded and half was lost, little of it acted as a building block for scientists of the next generation.

An easy read, with only the detail required to make the point, this book makes you want to read more. Capra uses a mix of primary and secondary sources and sometimes it made me want to read the books he quotes instead of his text. Also suggest you also look at Nicholl's book. See also Capra's web site, where Oliver Sacks gives an overview of the book.

Duncan Watts Blasts Influencer Models

We met Watts some years ago at the Sante Fe Institute and tried to understand how his theories could link to marketing. From Wim Van de Velde, an interview:

"Buzz-Kill: Columbia Prof Blasts Influencer Model
NEW YORK -- Influencers. Connectors. Mavens. For years, it has been conventional wisdom that to create a buzz, you have to first target those archetypes to get your word out. The theory, outlined in Malcolm Gladwell's 2000 bestseller The Tipping Point, posits that a minority of the population, some say 15%, have an undue influence over the rest of us. Such influencers tend to have more friends than most and also have an urge to acquire social capital (i.e. exclusive information and products) before everybody else. Though Gladwell takes pains to point out that the gregarious people (connectors) need to link up with social currency hoarders (mavens), many lump the two together. Now, Duncan Watts, a Columbia University sociology professor, is charging that the whole theory of influencers is bunk and most of the time buzz is spread by networks and a "critical mass of easily influenced people each of whom adopts, say, a look or brand after being exposed to a single adopting neighbor." ... '

Wim sends along a link to the original paper this article is based on.

This Blog

This blog will be undergoing considerable re-design in the coming weeks. I am starting to switch some of my very considerable corporate internal blogging efforts to my public blog. Internally I have posted for years, and this external blog was a minor concern. You will also see a change in tone. Previously posts were mainly republishing some few internal posts.

I will be retiring at the end of February. If you have any thoughts about this blog, or would like to talk to me about Web 2.0 and related efforts, do let me know, my linkedIn profile.

Blog Book Reviews

Sarah Boxer reviews a number of books about blogs, in a current NYRB.

Productive Nanosystems

Foresight Nanotech Institute and Battelle Unveil a Technology Roadmap for Productive Nanosystems
Menlo Park, CA --January 29, 2008 - The potential for nanotechnology to "build molecule-by-molecule" has been greatly discussed with one question invariably being asked: How do we get from here to there? Foresight Nanotech Institute, a leading nanotechnology think tank and public interest organization, and Battelle, a leading global research and development organization, have officially unveiled "Productive Nanosystems: A Technology Roadmap." Productive nanosystems are molecular-scale systems that make other useful materials and devices that are nanostructured ... "

The Original Swiffer Channel

A bit behind, I just discovered the Original Swiffer Channel, a Youtube video contest. Clever, though complicated and too much fine print. 186K + hits, mixed comments. Still under way.

Minds on Fire

Richard Adler of IFTF writes through Future Commons, could have interesting implications for new ways to look at internal training:

" ... An article titled "Minds on Fire: Open Education, the Long Tail, and Learning 2.0," that I've co-authored with John Seely Brown is the cover story in the new issue of the EDUCAUSE REVIEW. In the article, we argue that the biggest impact of technology on education will come from the ability of Web 2.0 to support "social learning" rather than simply providing access to open courseware. We point to the online communities that support open source software as paradigms for social learning through a process of initiation and education that we call "legitimate peripheral participation." ... '

Intelligent Foam on Store Shelves

The basic idea has been around for a while, but retailers in general are not interested in the added infrastructure costs, also an issue with advanced methods, like product tagging.

"Intelligent foam could keep shop shelves stacked A grid of many individual sensor "cells" can detect products on a shelf (Image: Applied Physics Letters) ... Store shelves that know when they need restocking are one of many potential applications for a novel sensing foam developed by researchers in Europe.

Shelves fitted with a thin layer of the foam can tell when products are out of stock, allowing a store to automatically monitor supply. And the foam could give other objects and surfaces sensing abilities, the researchers say ... "

Technical reference.

The Internet is Down, Now What?

May make me sound like a luddite, but this case has to be considered. Crucial systems depend on it so much, how exactly would we react to a major failure of the network? Where is the backup? Computerworld discusses.

Measuring Public Relationships

I have had a few conversations with Katie Paine of KDPaine and Partners, sharp lady. She has a new book out: Measuring Public Relationships, The Data-Driven Communicator's Guide to Success, which has a blog here. Have not read the book yet, but plan to. " .. Paine takes a "cookbook" approach, providing specific steps to measure all forms of public relationships, from social media measurement to tracking relationships with local communities, industry analysts and social networks ... "

Transit Maps of the World

Transit Maps of the World by Mark Ovenden is a remarkable book. It includes some of the history and all of the graphic maps for all of the world's city transit systems. On the history I have read a history of the London Tube that was better, but that's not what this book is about. I am a big buff of rail transport, always try to make time to seek out all kinds of rail travel, and have ridden on quite a few of the systems described. I found myself tracking old routes I had taken in Brussels and Washington DC. And of course this is mostly about the graphical design aspects of the route maps. The sheer numbing complexity of Tokyo's map, the simplicity of London and Boston's, and the number of historical attempts to express connectedness in an easy to browse way for the newcomer. I never did figure out the Tokyo system, what you need there is some sort of underground GPS capability, would not be surprised if it existed already. Or would also help if you grew up there. Excellent book for examples of graphic instruction design and railway buffs. An easy book to scan as well.

Social Networks for Focus Groups

Fairly obvious, good examples in this space, in WSJ:

The New Focus Groups: Online Networks
Proprietary Panels Help Consumer Companies When Del Monte Foods was considering a new breakfast treat for dogs, it sent out a note to an online community of dog owners asking them what they most wanted to feed their pets in the morning. The consensus answer was something with a bacon-and-egg taste ... The online community, called "I Love My Dog," isn't some random chat room or yet another Web site for dog enthusiasts -- the group was created by Del Monte. Its 400 members were handpicked to join the private network, which the company uses to help create products, test marketing campaigns and stir up buzz.".... '

Del Monte work also covered in a detailed MarketTools case study.

Microsoft and MediaCart

Have followed this basic idea for years, and experimented with a number of implementations in lab and real environments. This space is littered with a half dozen attempts at this same idea. This seems to be better thought-through than many. More.

Microsoft to help food companies run video ads on grocery carts
SEATTLE (AP) -- Microsoft Corp. is bringing digital advertising to the grocery cart. The software maker spent four years working with Plano, Texas-based MediaCart Holdings Inc. on a grocery cart-mounted console that helps shoppers find products in the store, then scan and pay for their items without waiting in the checkout line. Microsoft's acquisition of aQuantive, an online advertising company, last year for $6 billion shored up the company's capacity to serve video ads onto these grocery cart screens ... The system also uses radio-frequency identification to sense where the shopper's cart is in the store. The RFID data can help ShopRite and food makers understand shopping patterns, and the technology can also be used to send certain advertisements to people at certain points -- an ad for 50 cents off Oreos, for example, when a shopper enters the cookie aisle. Microsoft said it is still working on how it will present commercials and coupons.... "

On the Corporate Blog Council

Paul Gillin summarizes some of the criticism of the Corporate Blog Council, which I have commented on here before. He has some good points, there is some paranoia here from both the corporate and public blogger's view, but it's still worth the effort. Might have been better to make it a lower key effort without press releases.

Roy Amara

Roy Amara, president emeritus of the Institute for the Future, died on December 29. His most notable quote: " ... "We tend to overestimate the effect of a technology in the short run and underestimate the effect in the long run .... ". He worked with us in the 70s and 80s to establish early forms of their ten year forecast. He was an early supporter of Doug Engelbart, inventor of the mouse. More about Amara.

Why IT Will Change

Ed Cone interviews Nick Carr: Why IT Will Change ... The future of computing lies with the utility model, says the controversial author. And the implications may be profound.

Collective Intelligence

I picked up Toby Segaran's new book: Collective Intelligence: Building Smart Web 2.0 Applications. This brings together two of my favorite technical topics: Web 2.0and Artificial Intelligence methods. I like the way he covers a number of Web 2.0 intelligence problems: clustering, matching, searching ... and provides short mostly statistical solutions to them. First I had seen this done, and that is worth reviewing. Most of the solutions are likely not scalable for real problems, but they are useful examples.

He uses Python as the language to program each solution. Which is a fine choice, though I have never done anything serious with it, it looks appropriate. He points out that you don't need to know Python to understand the examples. But you do need to know programming to understand the logic involved. This is not a how-to book for someone without coding experience to implement these methods. Also, for problems of any scale, its probably not a good choice to roll, debug and embed your own algorithms. Method libraries exist, which he mentions, which would be a good choice. Or hire an experienced programming team. Some statistical background is also requisite to judge the appropriateness of the methods.

Despite the issues of practicality of using the solutions as printed, this book brings together algorithms and Web 2.0 in a very instructive way, and for that reason is worth taking a look at. Also, Segaran's blog.

Open Social Graph

Charlene Li, in her Forrester Blog, posts about the Open Social Graph. This problem of how 'open' social networking can be is becoming a contentious issue.

Boomer Use of Online

EMarketer article Don't You Dare Call Them "Old", with useful statistics. Via Susan Walker.

The Near-Term Future of Robots at Home

Have followed the progress of home robotics here for some time. Especially the work by IRobot with their Roomba sweeper and Scooba floor cleaner which were sold for a while at Costco. They have seen some tough times, losing big in the third quarter, but now plan some new ideas. The article linked to below provides some useful hints into their plans. This BW slideshow includes reviews of a number of current robot offerings, for fun and household tasks. Though clever, most of these ideas have only implied autonomy, and still have a way to go.

iRobot: Ready to Clean Up
" ... The Roomba maker says it's readying more robots to do the dirty work of cleaning and the fun work of keeping people connected " We're trying to focus on the chief household officer vs. early adopters, or people who are fascinated by robot technology. We're positioning Roomba as a durable appliance that will give you freedom to do more of what you want to do during the day. As you look at your life inventory, and the amount of time you spend doing things you enjoy vs. those you dislike, we're asking, "How can we show you that robots can give you more freedom in your life?" That messaging, and delivering the goods in the product, is important--that robots aren't things of the future, but very practical today ... "

Lazlo Letters as CGM

I read the Lazlo Letters in the late 70s. Pete Blackshaw makes the point that these were a first example of consumer generated media (CGM), with the technology of the time, print. The examples it uses are of course, mid to late 70s, (that's 1970s, folks) but they are still largely understandable.

Gift Card Issues

Gift cards see increasing usage every holiday season. Evan Schuman looks at related glitches and startups this year.

Mapping Professional Networks

In MIT Tech Review: IBM's Atlas tool aims to help businesses visualize connections between colleagues.

Valley Boy

I read Valley Boy: The Education of Tom Perkins. Perkins is the founder of the ground breaking venture capital firm: Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB) in 1972. Sometime in the late 80s I met him when IFTF had their offices nearby on Sand Hill Road. This firm financed companies like Tandem Computers, Genentech and most famously Google. A key player in getting a number of high tech firms funding. He was part of HP's board during the bugging debacle a few years ago, and gives his version of the story. He managed HP's move into computing hardware as one of their GMs. He also tells how they developed key aspects of the venture process. Before KPCB he pioneered the commercialization of laser technology. Includes some quirky tales that reveal how rich he is. Worth a read for a history of this aspect of business from the 70s to the present. More.

He also tells the remarkable story of Jan Sloot. In 1999 Perkins was brought in to help verify Sloot's development of a revolutionary technical method for doing video and other data transmission. This would have completely changed how data is transmitted. Though still skeptical, Perkins was convinced enough to push for a very big investment. Then the unthinkable happened, the inventor Sloot died during the celebration immediately after the key demonstration! Then even more remarkably, he had apparently hidden the secret compiler that implemented the method so well that it has not been found to this day. No one ever was able to reproduce the results. This is the 'law of the failing demo' taken to an extreme! This is further discussed here, where it is positioned as impossible.

Schulz Bio Read

Previously I wrote about David Michaelis' biography of Peanuts originator Charles Schulz. I finished the book over the holiday. In my previous post I mentioned and linked to some of the controversy being brewed by family and friends of Schlulz.

Overall I liked most parts of the book. The description of the early history of cartooning in the US was worth reading. Also, some of the details of various Schulz efforts beyond the newspaper cartoons, the TV programs and other licensing reminded me of those times as I experienced it. Sometimes the author provided a bit too much detail, the book could have been edited down from 600 pages.

Most interesting and still puzzling was the inclusion of hundreds of Peanuts strips, out of almost 18 thousand that Schulz did. I distinctly remember a number of those printed. According to the book, the strips can be used to directly understand Schulz's and his family's life at the time they were drawn. Sometimes this is clearly the case. In others, its a matter of interpretation. The author even suggests at one point that Schulz's family could simply have used the strips to understand his thinking. It is unclear if they did that. The strips were chosen from his entire work, so serve to confirm the authors narrative.

Then to the controversy. Michaelis interviewed many people for this book, some who had never been interviewed about Schulz before. Some of his family members and friends of many years are now saying that the book is misleading about his character, and especially about how he treated his family. This includes family members who were interviewed extensively. Of course I cannot know the accuracy of any of the statements. Based on reading the book Schulz comes across as quite human, with great talent and some quirks as well. Nothing very negative. This surprised me after reading the quite negative commentary. A truthful biography will likely contain less than perfect commentary about its subject.

Bottom line, this book is worth reading if you are interested in Schulz' life and its context in US cultural history. It's also worth reading the comments by his family and friends about it's accuracy.

Disappearance of Corporate IT?

In CIO Mag, combative pundit Nicholas Carr predicts that corporate IT will be largely replaced by cloud services. Have not yet read the book whose premise this article outlines:

The Disappearance of Corporate IT
Controversial author Nicholas Carr says the network--the Internet, that is--has become, literally, our computer.

First Nicholas Carr dropped a bombshell of a book, Does IT Matter? Information Technology and the Corrosion of Competitive Advantage, which argued that corporate IT is increasingly becoming a commodity. Now he's back with a provocative new tome, The Big Switch: Rewiring the World, From Edison to Google (W. W. Norton, 2008), wherein he makes the case that IT as we know it may disappear completely ... "

Wikiversity, Wikipedia, and Participatory Learning

Correspondent Henrik Bennetsen, Research Director of the Stanford Humanities Lab sends along " ... The video from the super interesting Wikiversity, Wikipedia, and Participatory Learning workshop .... ". Audio is a bit weak. See also their metaverse talk, for those interested in virtual worlds.

Shared Items on Google Reader

I am playing around a bit with Google's shared items capability, which is available from Google reader. Here are my shared items, still fairly sparse. You can set up a feed for these shared items as well. It forms a blog of items you choose to share with your friends. Though you cannot add your own comments. If you use the Google Reader RSS aggregator, it's sort of a friends network. I am still trying to understand how this scales. I have friends that aggregate into different groups ... professional friends who are interested in topic X, family, etc. Can I categorize them when I share? Check out the reader blog for more. I would like to see some examples of how people are using this usefully.

P&G's CIO Puts IT At Users' Service

From InformationWeek, includes an interview:

P&G's CIO Puts IT At Users' Service
"We want to be the go-to organization in terms of decision making throughout the organization." That's pretty ambitious talk, but it's typical of Filippo Passerini, chief information and global services officer at Procter & Gamble. Passerini's group doesn't just provide data for executive decision making. He's also in charge of P&G's shared services organization, responsible for corporate services like HR and payroll. For Passerini, the blend of services and technology is a potent combination, one that helps make IT integral to the organization ... '

Cap Gemini Trend Newsletter

Cap Gemini does their year end view of technology:The CEO's Guide To Industry Trends In 2008: Our Annual Virtual Roundtable With Capgemini Experts. In a number of interesting verticals.

Sometimes Strange Nature of the Biography

I have in front of me the recent Bio: Schulz and Peanuts, By David Michaelis. Peanuts was one of the few strips I read for years. Identified a bit with Charlie Brown. Knew little about Charles Schulz, so it picked it up while roaming the library. Have now read the intro.

Something made me read the Amazon reviews. The reviews were polarized, some loving it and some disliking it. One of those reviews led me to a huge commentary thread about the book at Cartoonbrew. First I had seen the CartoonBrew blog, an interesting find in itself.

Anyway, the thread about the Schulz book has hundreds of entries, almost all criticizing the portrayal of Schulz in the bio. Long pieces by his family members and friends of many years. Each stating that Michaelis had pre established a narrative about Schulz's life, a Citizen Kane/Rosebud metaphor, and printed only things that fit the framework. I read nearly the whole thread. Some heart wrenching and inspirational stories among them. Lots of support for the fact that there is much misrepresentation in the book.

So it gets to the nature of a biography. Who to believe. Michaelis spent seven years researching the book and talked to lots of people who knew him. The commenters, some who were interviewees, say he got many facts and impressions wrong. So its only fair to finish the book now. Or is it? I likely will. And I now have started. I like his presenting some of the Peanuts strips. It does appear the theme started from the very beginning, with the inclusion of some of the Peanuts 'Rosebud' strips, which I do remember, having also seen Citizen Kane for the first time around then. Not fair if that infleunces your choice of material.

Reading the critical thread is a good example of how knowledge can be appended to the printed word. Will the commentary survive the book to give a contrary view? If you plan to or have read the book, read the comment thread.

TMagazine

The NY Times has a new magazine called TMagazine. Which I got an ad for this past week. It's an animation thing, with also, by the way. some text as well. Some interesting graphics arts, some eye catching visuals, but its not readable. I guess I am of the old guard which likes simple, large enough, static text on a quiet background. You know, something that you can read easily.

Sound Focusing

Have tested some sound focusing approaches by Holosonics. Now they are testing the idea on billboards in NYC. It's an interesting idea that improves on the use of sound for merchandising, but has been criticized for being invasive. See also this NYTimes article about using the sound of ice cubes clinking in a glass to attract people to Coke machines. Wonder if that effort, announced in 2003 is working out.

"Hear Voices? It May Be an Ad
An A&E Billboard 'Whispers' a Spooky Message Audible Only in Your Head in Push to Promote Its New 'Paranormal' Program
By Andrew Hampp
NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- New Yorker Alison Wilson was walking down Prince Street in SoHo last week when she heard a woman's voice right in her ear asking, "Who's there? Who's there?" She looked around to find no one in her immediate surroundings. Then the voice said, "It's not your imagination." ... "

Google to Compete With Wikipedia

Google is planning to compete with the Wikipedia with a system called Knol. I thought Google would have bought the WP by now. Nicholas Carr provides some commentary. Contrary to wiki principles, articles on topics will be owned by individuals. Should be an an interesting face-off. With the WP's head-start in critical mass it will be a tough challenge. There are lots of problems with the WP, though it remains a useful and evolving piece of work. Its refreshing to see another cut at participatory acquisition and delivery of knowledge world-wide. Some middle ground should exist between the dusty Britannica and the strange mix of open and closed territory presented by the WP. Though I guess we can expect ads to be liberally sprinkled through Knol?

Movable Type is Now Open Source

The Movable Type Publishing System, which I use for my internal company blog, is now open source.

Cult of the Amateur

With all this talk of social media around, I just got around to reading Andrew Keen's early 2007 book: The Cult of the Amateur: How Today's Internet is Killing our Culture. This book positions Web 2.0 from blogs to Facebook to the Wikipedia as dangerous developments that will ultimately degrade how knowledge is recorded and delivered, and put many people out of work along the way. Since most all of what we read today praises social media developments, this book adds a sobering contrary view that is worth understanding. I don't think that the internet will kill our culture, but it may change it, and not always for the better. This book makes an important argument. I suggest that if you are a promoter of social media, read this book. It shows what some of the negative consequences could be. Like any revealed technology we are likely to have to adapt to the consequences.

A bit ironically, Keen has an Amazon blog, where he frequently posts about the music business. The same blog looks like it's mirrored in his public blog: The Great Seduction. Looks like he has to use social media to get his arguments out there. It a great example of how blogging can be used to extend a books argument in time and space.

Johnson & Johnson VP Blogs

Gary Bembridge, vice president of global beauty care at Johnson and Johnson has an external blog called Unleashed on Marketing. Interesting and frequently updated. He also has a travel blog and does podcasts.

Convergence of Science and Spirituality

Finished The Universe in a Single Atom: The Convergence of Science and Spirituality a 2003 book by the Dalai Lama. It was very good, enjoyed the read. Part of my background is as a physicist, though I have never practiced physics. I am not spiritual, except perhaps in an broadly intellectual way.

The DL makes some interesting points ... he is very honest up front in saying he does not understand mathematics. Mathematics is the language of physics, and has been since Newton. Quantum mechanics is obscure even to those who know math more deeply than I do. Math is a requirement for physics these days, and statistics is part of that. So that's a big impediment.

The DL picks and chooses very carefully with examples that seem to show that Buddhism has predicted some results of modern physics. I don't know much about Buddhism, so I am hard pressed to say these choices are reasonable or not. I noticed that he very briefly mentioned being able to predict eclipses, which a number of ancient peoples figured out. Then he mentions astrology, which apparently is part of Buddhism, and that's very difficult to justify scientifically, and thus is mentioned no more.

Also no real mention of the 'scientific method' in the sense that it attempts to control context very carefully, that's why physics research works, and he seems to imply it's more about the choice of apparatus. Its more about careful control, which greatly simplifies the problem. I do like his mention of Popper's work ... I think falsifiability is an important idea, though this is a less popular notion in science today.

His view of evolution is also problematical. He brings up the problem of altruism and group selection. This has been addressed by a number of folks in evolutionary biology ... in particular 'Dawkins' Selfish Gene and following work. He discards those solutions pretty quickly. I am not saying he is wrong, only that he drops science that can't be ignored because it does not feel right. Liked his piece about early Tibetian work on senses.

His discussion of reincarnation is interesting, and although science cannot disprove it, it's one of those 'extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof ' situations.

I am in agreement overall that strictly reductionist, purely materialist science is dangerous. We have seen lots of examples of that. I am not sure there is much we can do about that. He seems to be saying we can add a spiritual overlay on science to make it safe, and a combination of the two will be better. Perhaps, though I am not convinced.

Overall a very thought-provoking book. Worth reading. Sad to see him run out of his country, though its probably contributed to his being heard. Good piece of science philosophy, from the spiritual direction.

SNCR Research Symposium

I attended the 2nd Annual Research Symposium of the Society for Communications Research(SNCR) this past week in Boston. Founded and run by Jen McClure, she does a nice job pulling together an interesting group of PR folks, researchers, vendors, academics and company workers who are working on new communications work. That means its mostly about what is usually called Web 2.0 and in the past has been primarily about blogging. I noted that this year there was much twittering going on at the meeting, there was not too much talk about what could make that useful. Also some sessions about virtual worlds, which I can see as 'new communications', but still immature in what it can deliver. Several expansive worlds were mentioned, but not the fact that they usually empty. I am glad that they are paying attention to virtual world communications. The way I understand it many of the presentations will be available on the SNCR site.

The panels were useful. Most of my work is facing inwardly in a large company, so its useful to see what others are doing. There was less about what PR companies specifically are doing this year, and I thought that aspect was refreshing.

Dr. Nora Baines of UMass Dartmouth gave an overview of what companies are doing with blogs. More here. Worth taking a look at that study which she completed last year, which looks broad at the why and how of companies blogging.

Joseph Carrabis of NextStage Evolution gave a talk on the Blogging Power Continuum. Had never thought about blogging power and what it means to understand it when attempting to use blogs to influence people. His company uses cognition based approaches to do predictive analytics. That work is not just about blogging, but about connecting people and messages, Some fascinating, novel work, with top level clients that is well worth a look. Much of my recent work has been connected with cognitive research influenced solutions, so this was particularly interesting.

One of the panels had a Coke marketer talking about the Mentos fountain phenomenon, which now seems so long ago. The insider details were interesting. I was amazed that Coke was able to act so quickly after seeing the video. It would be hard seeing other companies I am familiar with moving that quickly. An interesting historical tid-bit, Coke was also invovled with a much earlier consumer-generated-media event. in 1960 Andy Warhol painted a series of brand images. Best known are the Campbell Soup images, but Coke was also among them. Coke sent him a cease-and-desist order rather then thanking him for the great publicity. That would not happen today.

During the meetings I heard about the formation of the Blog Council. This is a group formed by some large companies to address the particular issues of large companies blogging. When I read the press release I noted that P&G was not included. Later I heard they were members, and in fact co-founders of the effort. In a coy decision they opted not to be included in the press release. Not really helpful to re-inforce the impression of a large company as secretive. I like the idea of the council. Large companies are often seen with ill-will in the blogosphere. It will be useful to figure out what that is and how to address it.

SAP is working will SNCR fellow Shel Israel, co-author of the Naked Conversation, to study social media world-wide. It is surprising that SAP is involved with this, does not appear like it's their style. He interviewed dozens of folks people world-wide who use social media of many types and presented these as stories. That's OK, but I would have preferred a more objective view of this world. What works, what does not? SAP would have been better serviced by that view.

Sun Microsystems also spoke about their continuing work with blogging. Their CEO has been blogging for some time. Now they have been getting their lawyers and financial people to start blogging about corporate results. Based on my limited experience, that is an amazing thing. I will find out more about that effort and post about it later.

I reconnected with Paul Gillin, blogger-journalist whose book: The New Influencers I reviewed and I now use internally to introduce people to the topic.

Thats my top-line, will blog again about this meeting as I review some of their material on-line. Check out their site. They would be useful to contact to do some research. Join up, hope to see you there next year.

We Are All Trime Travelers.

It's Pretend to be a Time Traveler Day. Appeals to my inner sense of absurdity.

MIT's Curriculum on the Web

This was first announced in 2001, I marveled at it then, its in the real spirit of knowledge sharing, amazing:

" ... MIT has put its entire curriculum of 1,800 undergraduate and graduate courses online, making the courses available for free to any user with an Internet connection and a Web browser.

First announced in 2001, MIT's OpenCourseWare includes syllabuses, homework assignments, exams, reference materials and video lectures when available. The information is published under an open license that allows for reuse, distribution and modification of the materials for noncommercial purposes, said OCW spokesman Steve Carson ...

Consider the Ethics of Hybrid Computing

Good Computerworld item: Scientist: 'Hybrid' computers will meld living brains with technology. This is as inevitable as the faster chip. It will bring aspects of the analog back into our thinking. It will create new kinds of sensors. It will stretch our ethics about how to combine living and digital.

Transistor at 60

Its good to sit back and think about this anniversary. I remember wiring up some transistor based circuits in the 60s, but had no conception about where this would ultimately go. Packing them ever more densely and having faster switches is good, but the claim made in the excerpt below implies that this development alone will solve some remaining tough problems of our time. I don't think so. It will require some tough thinking about the methods that will use all these new chips, and making sure that future versions of Vista don't suck up all that new power.

"The Transistor at 60 (Via ACM Technews)
Sydney Morning Herald (Australia) (11/27/07) Head, Beverley

Since its debut six decades ago, transistor technology has advanced to the point where 820 million transistors can be housed on Intel's new Penryn processor. However, the shrinkage of transistors to accelerate processing speed and manage power efficiency has Intel co-founder Gordon Moore convinced that a physical barrier will be reached within the next 10 or 15 years. Not everyone agrees with Moore's assessment. "What's happened again and again when you come upon the physical limits is we've been able to advance around them, and I think that will continue for at least the next several generations," says director of IBM's Australia Development Laboratory Glenn Wightwick. Intel CTO Justin Rattner forecasts that within 10 years electronics will shift from reliance on an electron's electrostatic charge to its "spin," and perhaps usher in molecular devices. Wightwick says many research labs are investigating potential replacements for transistors, such as molecular cascades or carbon nanotubes. The trade-off with a switch to new electronic components is the cost and effort of facilitating such a transition, but users would benefit enormously because their interaction with technology would be easier thanks to single-system chips, Rattner says. He says these advances could lead to innovations such as practical machine translation, continuous speech recognition, and personal robots. "

Protecting Laptop Data

Security expert and author Bruce Schneier discusses how he protects his laptop data.