deal architect

Child's Play

BL Ochman points to a mashup her 10 year old created. Saw it courtesy of Dennis Howlett.

In the meantime, Jeff Nolan addresses the dearth of web services in the enterprise world.

More proof that in some ways the living room is ahead of the boardroom.

The world is flat, er green

I was talking to Ray Lane a few weeks ago. And I was blown away - he was talking fluently about the ethanol yield from corn versus cane. He is spending half his time looking at green investments for Kleiner. Only towards the end of the conversation did we turn to software - social networking, Oracle ...yawn.

His former partner, Vinod Khosla, who made a ton in telecom and network plays is even deeper in to green investing.

President Bush spent considerable time in last week's State of the Union speech (and since) on alternative energy discussion.

Business 2.0's latest issue is all about going green.

Which brings us to Tom Friedman, who has moved on from Bangalore to Green is the new Red, White and Blue.

In our flat world, the impact is already being felt. Mexico is in the middle of a "tortilla crisis" as corn is being redeployed to make ethanol.  Ray would say Brazilian cane is more efficient.

$ 2 per barrel of oil, anyone? Barrel, not gallon...

"Regressive complexity"

Jason Corsello laments that SaaS pricing is going the way of more traditional software pretzel pricing. Darn industry analysts (he is with Yankee, but also a fellow Irregular) have to keep coining new terms.

It's far simpler - it's full employment for negotiators like Deal Architect -)

Forrester with Big Asterisk

Forrester says B2B Marketers Can Learn from Software Firms

To me, yes, if you are looking at lead qualification and management in isolation, software companies appear to be leading edge.

But you have to look at overall sales results:

They may have qualified leads but do not prepare their salespeople with lead intelligence. Most software sales people would fail this 15 minute first meeting guideline, my friend Brian Sommer and I wrote for Optimize magazine.

Software firms spend 25 to 50% in SG&A - that would bankrupt most of Forrester clients in other industries.

Software firms lose any front end advantage by fragmenting the rest of sales and marketing in to too many compartments. Not leading edge by most industry standards.

As the industry moves to SaaS, the marketing and sales model is going through changes as Phil points out...but today, take the Forrester advice with a pinch of salt. Or a shovel full.

Another 97.5% business

Dennis Howlett showcases Severn Delta which has moved aggressively to open source applications.

Another example of a 97.5% business. The cost of "branded software" to get the additional comfort is often exorbitant.

Martyn has earned the right to be a New Florence tour guide.

More New Renaissance posts

on technology innovation on my other blog

Item level RFID tagging
The Swiss Army Mobile
BusinessWeek "best books on innovation"
Personalized Weather Service
Haptic Tools
BestBuy's Smart Home
Consumer Technology Innovations
The State of US Nanotechnology
Different kind of Search for Google
Dean Kamen's FIRST

"Madam Speaker"

History was made when President Bush addressed Speaker Pelosi as he delivered his State of the Union speech this week.

I think those 2 words got him more applause than the rest of the speech. We definitely lag the world when it comes to this metric. Here were some early and prominent office holders  in other parts of the world

1960    Sri Lanka       S. Bandaranaike
1966    India              Indira Gandhi      
1968    Israel             Golda Meir
1974    Argentina      Eva Peron
1979    UK                  Margaret Thatcher
1986    Philippines    Corazon Aquino
1988    Pakistan            Benazir Bhutto
2005  Germany         Angela Merkel

Of course, when I travel I hear all the time how sexist, racist the US is. My response is along the lines of what I wrote here.  We do a lot of things right. We just need to do a few more right. Madam Speaker is a good start.

The Art of Predictions

'Tis the season to make Super Bowl predictions.

Leon Ho highlights tools which should allow the ordinary Joe to predict technology bowls (saw them courtesy of Sadagopan).

But my readers hopefully did not need much analysis to spot I did not post any 2007 predictions. I was humbled reading the spectacular misses below. And they did not even hedge Gartner style with probabilities.

Theoretically, television may be feasible, but I consider it an impossibility- -a development which we should waste little time dreaming about.
- Lee de Forest, 1926, inventor of the cathode ray tube

I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.
- Thomas J. Watson, 1943, Chairman of the Board of IBM

It doesn't matter what he does, he will never amount to anything.
- Albert Einstein's teacher to his father, 1895

It will be years - not in my time - before a woman will become Prime Minister.
- Margaret Thatcher, 1974

This 'telephone' has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us.
- Western Union internal memo, 1876

We don't like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out.
- Decca Recording Co. rejecting the Beatles, 1962

Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?
- H. M. Warner, Warner Brothers, 1927

640K ought to be enough for anybody.
- Bill Gates, 1981

Louis Pasteur's theory of germs is ridiculous fiction.
- Pierre Pachet, Professor of Physiology at Toulouse, 1872

Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons.
- Popular Mechanics, forecasting the relentless march of science, 1949

We don't need you. You haven't got through college yet.
- Hewlett-Packard's rejection of Steve Jobs, who went on to found Apple Computers

King George II said in 1773 that the American colonies had little stomach for revolution.

An official of the White Star Line, speaking of the firm's newly built flagship, the Titanic, launched in 1912, declared that the ship was unsinkable.

In 1939 The New York Times said the problem of TV was that people had to glue their eyes to a screen, and that the average American wouldn't have time for it.

An English astronomy professor said in the early 19th century that air travel at high speed would be impossible because passengers would suffocate.

Airplanes are interesting toys, but they have no military value.
- Marshal Ferdinand Foch in 1911

With over 50 foreign cars already on sale here, the Japanese auto industry isn't likely to carve out a big slice of the U.S. market.
- Business Week, 1958

Whatever happens, the U.S. Navy is not going to be caught napping.
- Frank Knox, U.S. Secretary of the Navy, on December 4, 1941

Stocks have reached what looks like a permanently high plateau.
- Irving Fisher, Professor of Economics, Yale University, October 16, 1929.

PS - I did not verify any of these at Snopes. I can safely predict my sharp readers will tell me some of these were never predicted.  Oh and BTW, Colts by 10.

I like the S0C7 genre

Charlie Wood links to Kill Dash Nine (careful - geeky and vulgar)

I guess I am showing my age - but I like the S0C7 - the Perry Como version.

"Run Hillary Run"

Bumper Sticker for Democrats - back of car

Bumper Sticker for Republicans - front of car -)

I am just glad the candidates are running...if they were walking, the campaign would last even longer than the 22 months this one will be!

Well,  at least some of it will be in contemporary technology - dare I say, Politics 2.0