deal architect

Kids in a candy store

Garlic Fries. Sushi. Carvery. Kettle Corn. Free WI-FI. Kayaking. All in one location. The Giants stadium in San Francisco is full of surprises. Baseball would be an afterthought. If it was not for the fact that we went on Barry Bond's birthday this past Tuesday. And he had a rare 5 at-bats as he chased home run 756.

The kids loved every minute. To me the hour before the game was the best part. CIO Bill Schlough gave us a personal tour of the stadium and its technologies - in the Hi-Def giant screen, in the private boxes, at the ticket turnstiles, in the solar panels, in the scouting. And yes the free WI-FI so you can play hooky for day games and still be at "work". After all, it is AT&T Park and it is a great marketing coup for a company taking heat for its slow network and lack of free hot spot roaming around the iPhone launch.

I had a jam packed week of treats with the kids in S and N. California and Vegas. At the end of the week I asked the boys to rank their favorite events. Sean, my cousin's son, unequivocally ranked the Giants tops. My son was a little less forthcoming. I suspect his favorite was the visit to the beautiful house in Pebble Beach where he learned to play poker.

Bill, sorry for my son's poker face about the Giants. I did not see him complain that we did not leave till the 13th inning. It was a magical evening for all us kids.

Like. Wow. Man.

Josh Bernoff of Forrester has the Social Media world abuzz with the revelation that the term "users" is so 80s.

The slight problem is most "users" today are NOT people. In the Internet of Things, conversations between devices and sensors and other things already dwarf human social network traffic.

Would be cool to have these users join us in singing "Kumbaya" by the campfire. With R2-D2 whistling along.

Now that would rock.
 

Red is gray and Yellow white

It felt like a Moody Blues moment at the Sandhill Enterprise conference I attended this week. So many different things are blurring in our industry

I asked John Baumgartner of BP as he finished presenting on tech innovations BP is leveraging from Second Life to mashups to  location aware services, if  the innovations were  winning IT back  respect with the business community. His response - the lines between business and IT are blurring. Business is coming up with many tech ideas and IT is increasingly embedded in products and processes.

3 of the 5 vendors showcased in the Next Big  Thing session are selling hardware appliances, hosting and telecommunication gadgets. So much for calling them "software" vendors.

Ray Lane presented on the theme of the "personal enterprise" - the consumerization of technology. Prof. C.K. Prahalad in his opening keynote focused on a similar theme.  One of the vendors showcased in the Next Big Thing is pioneering an advertiser funded model in enterprise software. Another is pioneering multi-player gaming concepts in the enterprise.

Finally, there were repeated references to emerging technology and vendors from around the world.

Interestingly, there was little positive discussion of MISO during the session, even though the underlying focus was to reminisce the last decade of enterprise software. The Nights in White Satin theme is appropriate.

We are seeing the end of an era. And the beginning of a shiny, somewhat confusing, new day.

More New Florence

On my other innovation blog

Automobile Analytics
The High-tech toilet seat
"The myths of innovation"
Usability Professionals
Evacuation Software
Balancing Security and Transparency
No Left Turns - technology at UPS

"Heightened National Security Concerns"

NY Times points out in 1968 "over the objections of AT&T, the F.C.C. ruled that consumers could plug it or any phone or accessory into the network so long as doing so did no harm to the network. The ruling set in motion the changes that provided consumers with a cornucopia of equipment choices like answering machines, fax machines, modems and cordless phones."

40 years later, AT&T descendants are using similar arguments to preclude "third party" gadgets from accessing their cellular networks. Verizon Wireless contends "that Google’s  proposals (for open access) would open its network to phones that Verizon had not approved and “that cannot reliably communicate with law enforcement,” a grave problem “in an era of heightened national security concerns.”

In the mean time, not sure whether it is related to the iPhone demand spike, but the AT&T Wireless (Cingular site) has been down quite a bit. I have checked it each day for our latest bill which was supposed to have been posted on 19th. As I wrote here, more portability across carriers would be good. The ability to pay by the drink as with on-line music services would be even better.

Because, speaking of security concerns, today's monthly cellular bills do cause plenty of panic attacks in the US.

Generation G Humor

A Canadian of Indian heritage who travels the world and has Indians, Koreans, Filipinos, Chinese, Jamaicans and everyone else in his audience. How much more Generation G can you get?

But Russell Peters pokes fun at every accent and ethnic trait. And he is incredibly popular even with the groups he makes fun of. YouTube has several other skits.

Warning - many will find language and the ethnic  humor offensive. But humor can help flatten the world even more.

Is IBM "Nimble"?

A good quarter and, of course, its vaunted marketing machine gets it a very positive write up in NY Times.

But is IBM really "nimble"?

I have written before that when IBM gets its act together it can be awesome. But that does not happen consistently. It is often tough to find the appropriate client partner to invite them to opportunities (opportunities – think what happens when there are problems). Sales teams often do not how to leverage IBM’s global delivery assets. Or to bridge multiple infrastructure and application services areas. Or they continue to cling to older price paradigms when they should be using massive scale to put teeth into utility offerings.

Its recent software moves have been mostly about buying companies which have leveled off in growth and giving them a bigger channel. Not exactly innovation, but more reach. And like with services, with a broad portfolio you often get left hand not knowing what the right is doing.

IBM sometimes reminds me of a visit I made to the Egyptian Museum in Cairo a few years ago. Embarrassment of riches – so many amazing artifacts as you walk through it – but lots just strewn around. And often reaching back to past glory. The website was last updated in 2003.

Lots of other adjectives come to mind, but nimble is a stretch.

Proud to be "Dull and Geeky"

Barrons calls enterprise software "pretty dull geeky segment" of the software industry.

You know what, much as I beat up on the larger vendors in this segment, I am proud to be part of this segment. Yes we may not have the current glitz of a Facebook or Twitter, but we cut checks, we invoice customers, we design products, we manage supply chains, we keep the wheels of commerce turning,

I am looking forward to the Sandhill Enterprise conference next week. It's the tenth anniversary of the conference and the unwritten theme is "ten glorious years in the enterprise software industry". Presenting are Ray Lane of Kleiner Perkins (formerly Oracle) and Bill Janeway of Warburg Pincus, two of the most influential individuals in this market segment over that decade. And several other executives in the market segment.

MR is too polite to tell me overtly but basically my cue for my panel is "Don't rain on this party". So not much from the Deal Architect blog, and lot more from my New Florence blog.

I am hosting a panel with the CIO of NIke and the Program Manager from BP's CTO Innovation Office. We will talk about exciting stuff like Second Life and iPhones. And yes, all the innovations in the "geeky dull" stuff. To help the wheels of commerce move faster and cheaper.

More Innovation Posts

On my New Florence blog

Anthropology and telecommunications
Second Earth
The iPhone's Untapped Potential
Mobile Phones as Diet Aids
Municipal WI-FI: good and bad
World's most powerful computer
People Movement Maps

Delayed Remorse?

Om Malik on the FCC's "suddenly competition-happy" Chairman.

Not just broadband. Mobile networks and applications. WiMAX.  Various other telecommunications. We lag the world, and pay more for it.

Oh, sure we have more cable, municipal wi-fi, rural carriers, global players in our hotspots and mobile services than a decade ago, but in a number of ways we are only a step removed from the Ma Bell monopoly we dismantled.

Darn straight, we need Mr. Chairman to be more competition - and consumer - friendly.