PLANNING AND LEADERSHIP FOR A BETTER WORLD
PLANNING AND LEADERSHIP FOR A BETTER WORLD This is the season for emerging tech conferences. There is the oldest, Demo, which with an aging pay to play model is tired. There is TechCrunch50, which is the most vibrant and most disorganized (at least viewed from afar in my case) and is always seeming to end in dispute. There is MIT's EmTech (which I attended), which holds promise but still needs to deliver. And there is my conference, which doesn't exist and highlights companies that don't exist.
Below is a list of 10 technologies and companies I'd like to see, but as near as I can tell don't exist. Feel free to steal the ideas. As I looked and read through the Demo, TC50, EmTech lists, I was struck by the number of me-toos, wannabes and head scratchers—as in "They really got some venture capital to do that?" If some of these companies already exist, please don't hesitate to let me know.
1. NewBank. After the great financial meltdown, I did not expect to see people so ready to quickly flock back to the banks and bankers that were a big part of the financial shenanigans, but that seems to be happening. I thought you'd see some sort of combination of microlenders, digital-only banking and social net group alliance creating a new banking model. I was wrong—so far. Where is the NewBank?
2. MyEnergy. Are we really going to wait for the big utilities, car companies and technology giants to give us the tools to measure, manage and get the best power consumption for our house at the lowest cost with the lowest environmental impact? Looks that way. Looking through the list of exhibitors at Demo and TC, you'd think the energy crisis was just so yesterday.
3. MyHealth. Who should own your health information? Maybe you? Who should decide how much medical information you want to provide and where you want to provide it to get the widest range of treatment options? We are in the midst of a big health care debate that should start and end with you controlling your information.
4. WhoAmI. If you were going to take all the places you appear on the Internet and build a model of your character, what would be the result? And if you didn't like the result, what would you do? Companies are spending millions of dollars on measuring brand awareness and corporate reputation perception on the Web, but what about you? If you don't measure your own brand, you risk finding that the outside perception of you is not at all who you are. WhoAmI would help you define and refine your personal Web brand.
5. Real-Time IT ROI. OK, I'm heading into corporate IT land here. The big problem with the yearly budget cycle is that it tries to stop time and new product development. What corporate IT needs is a real-time measurement system that constantly looks at your IT infrastructure and spits out recommendations for consolidation, virtualization, etc. It is time to stop the yearly budget calisthenics.
6. YourProductDeveloper. Product development is best left in the hands of the people who are going to buy the product. Your customer base and those potential customers represent your best product development team. Tapping into the customer base for new product and service ideas is still too often left to happenstance. It's time to wrap all the pieces up into one system.
7. SuperConsultant. The consulting business is often the object of jokes and derision, but consultants are part of every company's business strategy team. In this era of digitally driven financial and corporate transparency, why shouldn't consultants be forced to pitch their ideas in an online marketplace? The consultant aspirant looks at the company, comes up with a strategy and pitches the plan. The company looks at all the pitched plans and makes a bid. This would be fun to watch.
8. Social Netalyzer. There are a few versions of this floating around, but most concentrate on melding all the social net streams now in use. How about a social netalyzer that gives you the best choice for building specific business nets, or sports nets or services? Users need advice on which net to use for the best effect for a specific purpose.
9. Infrastructure Adviser. This is in the IT category again. What are the best software-as-a-service options? What about the big cloud services such as Amazon? The infrastructure adviser looks at what you have and develops recommendations (along with an ROI engine) to build a more efficient, less costly, more flexible IT environment.
10. BizNetwithBrains. Digital business networks were all the rage a few years ago. But those nets mostly concentrated on EDI, digital money transactions and interactions. What was missing was a way to complete the entire transaction, including reputation, contracting, inventory management and real-time business adjustments. A network with brains.
Well, there you go. That ends my conference. Thanks for attending and join me for (virtual) drinks in the bar.
Good morning from Los Angeles! #ibmcloudThat's it from me! Over to North America.The data processing of Roland Garros 2012 (#RG12) rests on IBM Private Cloud http://t.co/JUaY1ItM [French Press release]IBM Accelerates Business from Supply to Demand with New #Cloud Offerings For Smarter Commerce http://t.co/OFxknOb0 [Press Release]How IBM #SmartCloud Foundation technology powers cloud adoption?
IBM VP @SLHebner explains here http://t.co/sSzfa0O5 [VIDEO]IBM's Fiona Cullen will present ‘The Power of #Cloud: Driving Business Model’ On May 24 @ Utrecht, Netherlands #cloudforum2012 #ibmcloudBlog Post: Why service providers should not ignore cloud http://t.co/ZfQyue4r via @eMarcusNet #thoughtsoncloudHave any #cloudmoment? Share your story with us via Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook and tag it. See other stories http://t.co/J4ntsaQ5Sign up now for IBM #SmartCloud Enterprise! No charge for select VMs (only till May 28). More Details >> http://t.co/2LEzOUZC #ibmcloudRT @HansMoen: See this video from @IBMCloud to learn how to cut costs in building innovation in your business http://t.co/XOyJoFn6 #clou ...
Like us on Facebook 
Follow us on Twitter 
Get the Smarter Tech Newsletter 
Register to view the archived "Data Center Optimization Techniques: Stop Wasting Time & Money" eSeminar
Register Now > 
