deal architect

The Web 2.0 Confusion Cycle

Last couple of weeks, I have been scratching my head about where we are in the Web 2.0 Hype Cycle - so many conflicting signals. So many market definitions.

Are we in the:

Technology Trigger? Google introduces IMAP. Yahoo! wants to get back to its technology roots. Back to the future of Web 1.0 and offline computing.

Peak of Inflated Expectations? Facebook is valued at over $ 15 billion. I expect Carl Icahn to join the BEA board and ask Oracle to offer a similar valuation.

Trough of Disillusionment? Jeffrey Walker summarizes the payback from Web 2.0 summit

Slope of Enlightenment? Gartner issues a MQ on "Team Collaboration and Social Software". No Facebook anywhere on its social landscape. But BEA is on it. Ammunition for negotiation with Oracle.

Plateau of Productivity? Ross Mayfield celebrates 5 years of blogging and has his company, SocialText included in above Gartner MQ. Talk about productivity doing both and managing a young family and a Second Life! In contrast, there's news that only a very small percentage of folks actively blog. They are being productive in their lives not wasting time writing blogs -)

Carl Icahn recently called BEA "midware" in an interview. His analysts are probably also keeping close tabs on the  "2.0ware" market segment. Love to know where they think it is in the hype curve...

The Verizon "cover" charge

On a line primarily used for in-bound calls and faxes, I notice a $ 2.12 charge the last few months on my Verizon bill. It is called a "short fall" charge. I did not use at least $ 2 in monthly long distance so they are billing that plus taxes.  When I signed up there was no minimum required. I do not mind a cover charge to enter a bar, but for $ 25 a year you think they would at least buy me a drink or arrange some live music

I do not use the Verizon long distance because the few faxes I have used it for cost 40c a minute to Virginia and 90c a minute to Canada. Make it mindless to use and I will quit using Skype or pay per call services like Tel3. But it's Verizon's charge for my having them listed as my long distance carrier of record. The way to remove that is to call them and tell them you want NOBODY as your LD carrier of record.

You think Verizon, stung by cable companies and VoIP, would not want to actively chase away long distance  customers.  Or may be it is counting on grandmas and grandpas not even noticing the charge. Yes those poor souls that still continue to lease their phone 50 years after they had paid off their phone...

The Coke machine ate my homework. I swear!

In Japan ..."By holding the sheet open and stepping to the side of the road, she showed how a woman walking alone could elude pursuers — by disguising herself as a vending machine."

No kidding. I have written before about innovations in vending machines...but this?

As the article says "“Japanese society won’t just laugh, so inventors are not afraid to try new things"

UI...PHUI

Every few years the enterprise software industry wakes up and looks at its user interface in the mirror, and shrieks and goes for plastic surgery, bunch of make up, yet another diet...

As they invest millions improving their UI this time, hope they consider...

...that messaging between machines, sensors, devices have for the last couple of decades outstripped human originated messaging traffic. Optimizing non-human interfaces is even more important than newer UIs
...that the "universal UI" is a holy grail. Traders, salesfolks, shop floor employees, the UPS delivery employees, are not homogeneous and will never use a single UI
...that amazon.com, eBay and Google have shown in the last few years that the best user interface is the one which does not require elaborate documentation - and does not generate tons of calls to some help desk
...that we are already seeing a huge proliferation in mobile user interfaces. We are going to be swimming in way too many UIs in coming years
...that the average CFO does not want a "prettier" user interface, but wants more productive accountants that can help compress the monthly closing cycle and help the company show in top quartile of best practice process benchmarks. That the average VP of Logistics is looking for tons of customer, shipment and other data - wants lots of reliable, bulk data, and in fact is suspicious of user touched data.

From an enterprise POV, UIs that are intuitive and easy to customize should be the goal.. not pretty ones.

Update: Dennis Howlett posts an expanded discussion on UIs at ZDNet

and my later note on topic

Burning question: What do you seek in an industry conference?

Jason Corsello talks about a session at a conference he really enjoyed. I would have also enjoyed it because it had end users - buyer participants - on the panel. Nothing like real life experiences. Little marketing spin.

On the other hand, Duncan Chapelle reports Gartner Symposium in Orlando saw several empty seats (I think it peaked around 10K attendees one year, so 6K this year would show empty in many of the larger rooms at the massive Dolphin-Swan complex). Even more telling - only 150 exhibitors down from 340 in 2001. Correlation - fewer buyers at the event attract less vendors. Kind of a spiral. Of course, the event agenda book is still so thick, it is overwhelming which sessions you want to attend. And puny compared to Oracle OpenWorld which is supposed to attract 40,000 and the agenda is chock ful of technical sessions, industry leader presentations, entertainment.

My favorite sessions at events I go to follow this order:

a) Buyer panels, particularly CIOs discussing innovation projects
b) Startup cameos where promising startup CEOs present their company and product for 10-15 minutes
c) A panel with conflicting interests - so buyers, investor, vendor reps on a panel. Hey, dueling words get exchanged every day in real life, so why not be transparent in a conference  panel?
d) Interview with a large technology company executive - but a frank one, not just a respectful, softball one
e) A market overview perspective from a VC, a McKinsey, an analyst firm, or a market leading blogger -  but only 1-2 in a conference. One of the reasons I would suggest Gartner Symposium has peaked is it is 90% analyst pitches.
f) Perspective from a large company vendor executive which is not about their company. Their life, their industry perspective, their politics,
g) Presentations by systems integrators and outsourcers. Generally, they present too much on methods and standards, not enough on client case studies.

I know many readers go to conferences for technical sessions. Others go for the vendor booths and demos. Some go for the networking opportunity. Others go to hang out with colleagues and friends they have not seen in a while. Still others for the entertainment. Some for the catered food -)

Reader, what are your tricks and traps as you decide which events you go to - and then how do you optimize your few days at the event?

More in New Florence

On my innovation blog

Rent-a-Pet
The new incubator at HP Labs
The Ig-Nobel Prizes
Innovative HR products
Our new hobbies
Airtravel-as-a-service
Room for technology
Alien Telescope Array

Do leave home without it

The 11th International Symposium on Wearable Computers was held in Boston last week.

Ironically, on the registration page, they recommend "not traveling with technology that is out of the ordinary" - and point to this security incident at Boston airport.

The MIT Student was arrested at gun point for wearing a sweatshirt that had a circuit board affixed to the front with green LED lights and wires running to a 9-volt battery.

Wearable computers and airport security probably will not go well together for the foreseeable future.

Well, duh!

Head scratchers:

What kind of negotiation did the Yankees conduct with Joe Torre? Fly him down from New York, meeting lasts 20 minutes, make him an offer he absolutely could refuse.

You invite Jimmy Kimmel to Monday Night Football, what exactly do you expect him to talk about?

"“We wouldn’t respond to a (unhappy customer's) blog post,” ...the story is now number 3 on Google search for Spirit Airlines.

Hey, George I live in Tampa...need help with a technology negotiation? Spirit, I am flying into Fort Lauderdale, your HQ on Sunday night, if you want to talk about pesky bloggers. And MNF, since you will be in Jacksonville Monday, let me know if you need another guest for the show...-)

Fall Sale: Color Copies

I bought for my wife earlier in year a HP 2605DN for her color brochures , partly because Kinko's wanted 90c for each color page.

Now Kinko's is down to 49c a page. UPS ,always watchful of Fedex, Kinko's parent goes even better with 35c a copy. Sure there is fine print - limited time offer etc. etc. but there are volume discounts and I know, even better corporate discounts.

I am hoping this reflects that HP is becoming more reasonable in its pricing for consumables. It has to if it seeks to increase its market share beyond 1.6%

Or maybe, it is just reacting to Xerox's ink war.

So, instead of comparing HP ink pricing to Dom Perignon pricing, can we now think of comparing it to that of Miller High Life?

Burning question: Have you seen a grown man cry?

This continues a series of burning questions I pose to my readers to hopefully spark some debate in the comments. This time...the topic is truly burning - what is the hottest meal you have ever eaten?

I put a little too much Wasabi sauce yesterday to mask not great store bought sushi my wife brought. And it singed my sinuses so bad I had to jump off the table in search of a Kleenex. Scared everyone around and I thought it was 911 time. Instead, I just cried for a few minutes. Wasabi is supposed to be an antidote to poisoned food. Darn thing kills everything!

Then I saw this post courtesy of Mike Krigsman and cried some more - and this post became burningly obvious -)

Readers, please chime in and vote your own favorite, spicy, tear-jerking meals.

I am providing a list of my Scoville scale busting meals - unfortunately I cannot remember all the restaurant names.

a) Dipping sauce at a dive in Houston, with menus only in Spanish. I thought it was guacamole. It was pure jalapeno. Probably a habanero tossed in.
b) Penang curry at an Indonesian restaurant in Amsterdam
c) TomYum soup at a Thai restaurant in New York
d) Vindaloo at an Indian restaurant in London
e) a night at the Wall of Fire at the cajun Heaven on Seven in Chicago.
f) a simple salad of mostly chopped onions and green peppers with some garam masala at a restaurant in India. What looked routine, and I must have distracted and kept eating it, ended up scalding my mouth for a couple of days.

So cry on. Plenty of Kleenexes available here -)