InformationWeek Stories by Patrick Houston

InformationWeek Stories by Patrick Houstonhttp://www.informationweek.comInformationWeeken-usCopyright 2012, UBM LLC.2012-11-12T09:06:00ZInnovation Lesson: Disrupt Before You're DisruptedEven innovators struggle with the pace of change. Here are some of the ways Silicon Valley companies like LinkedIn push the edge without falling off.http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/240077525?cid=SBX_iwk_related_commentary_Mobility_developmentIf you're among those IT execs and managers grasping for ways to keep up with the curve -- let alone get ahead of it -- take comfort. Even those who reside in the so-called Cradle of Innovation are struggling as mightily as you. In my meanderings around and about Silicon Valley, innovation itself has been consistently cropping up as a topic among the entrepreneurs who are supposed to embody the very word -- as they too confront the same disruptive mobile, social and cloud technologies they've help wrought. For example, CEO John Donahoe took a conference stage recently to discuss how he's reinvigorating eBay, a company that played a large and early role in turning retailing upside down. He's rekindled "that magic alchemy of innovation"-- his words -- with a treatment resonant of the alchemists' heyday: He resorted to blood-letting -- by replacing 80 of the top 100 people who were at eBay upon his arrival in 2008. Now, he said, "We have a nice blend of 150 people," consisting of 50 from the old guard and 100 from a new one. I suppose sometimes such drastic measures are what it takes to get a company or team cranking again. I'm not a fan of the approach. Instead, I'll endorse an approach used by cloud-computing pioneer Salesforce.com. There, I met Matt Bennetti, a mergers and acquisitions exec, who acts less like any dealmaker I've known and more like a talent agent. When Salesforce.com buys a company, Bennetti personally sees to it that the newbies find acceptance, not so they adapt to Salesforce but so Salesforce adapts to them, their fresh eyes and cutting-edge ideas. He'll even champion them for bigger roles. And in that way, he does his part to keep new blood coursing through the company's veins. [ Get more innovation tips and share your best practices on how to <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/global-cio/interviews/how-do-you-survive-the-innovation-hamste/240049890?itc=edit_in_body_cross">Survive The Innovation Hamster Wheel</a>. ] But my favorite strategy for rapid renewal came by way of an encounter I had with LinkedIn. If you've spent any time on the social media service favored by professionals, you've had to notice its recent <a href="https://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/social_networking_consumer/linkedin-how-to-take-advantage-of-recent/240044429">rat-a-tat-tat of improvements</a> -- a new iPad app, LinkedIn for Windows phones, strikingly revamped profile and company pages, and a host of features around content, updates, endorsements and notifications. Get this: It claims it's making new or incremental updates -- beyond minor bug fixes, mind you -- at a rate of 700 times a week.   <div style="margin:0; padding:0 0 10px 15px; width:244px; float:right;"> <div style="margin:0; border-top:1px solid black; border-bottom:1px solid black; padding:6px;"> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/global-cio/"><img src="http://twimgs.com/infoweek/1217/217ID_GlobalCIO_75.jpg" width="75" height="75" border="0" align="right" alt="Global CIO" style="margin:0 0 6px 6px;"></a> <div style="margin:0 0 6px 0; font-size:1.3em; font-weight:bold; color:#113e53;">Global CIOs: A Site Just For You</div> Visit <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/global-cio/">InformationWeek's Global CIO</a> -- our online community and information resource for CIOs operating in the global economy. </div> </div>   The hyper-innovation has led to hyper-growth: LinkedIn has grown 42% in the past year alone to 187 million-plus members. How did LinkedIn set the stage for that performance? Simple: It got out of its own way. When I dug into the details behind its sidestep, I had to utter a silent "hallelujah" -- based on my own experience as a line of business and product owner. You know what a product manager of any kind hates? Waiting. There's nothing worse than standing in a queue, especially when time-to-market means so much. In most cases, the blame lies with bottlenecks caused by centralized resources, like IT. At LinkedIn, it wasn't exactly IT, but something quite akin to it -- an engineering process that led to a single testing, certification and change-management team. Nothing went live at LinkedIn until that team let it be so. As it goes, LinkedIn wasn't doing badly. It was issuing new releases to its platform every two weeks. But, as Mohak Shroff, one of LinkedIn's engineering directors explained, even that admirable pace wouldn't do, and especially not in a culture that was attempting to rev innovation through "hack days," "incubation challenges" and other similar rank-and-file exercises on one hand, yet slowing it down on the other. So, just before the end of 2011, the company focused all its engineering resources on Project Inversion, so called because its aim was to forget about incrementally changing processes and toolsets, and instead turn them upside down by fundamentally re-engineering them. According to Shroff, one of its leaders, the all-out effort entailed creating the tools to automate testing, certification and change management. That was hard enough. But there was a second, even bigger challenge: For the automation systems to work, the engineers at LinkedIn had to recode the platform itself so it could respond to the tools. Now, with Project Inversion fully implemented, LinkedIn's engineers and product teams are launching new products, features or improvements not every two weeks but two times a day. That means the world to product leaders like LinkedIn's Mike Grishaver. He's in charge of LinkedIn's company pages. Now, he has a choice: hit the market with an improvement when it's fully ready, or do A/B testing -- trying a change for as briefly as a single day just to compare its results to the status quo or a different option. Either way, he can do it under the most telling circumstance -- real market conditions. I worked with Mike at Yahoo where we together suffered the snail's pace of its engineering processes. I pressed my former brother-in-arms for the non-company line about Project Inversion. When I did, his back straightened. "Dude," he exclaimed, "it's made material difference." Mike is a corporate revolutionary. You know the type. They're constitutionally incapable of going along to get along because, well, they're so often the real innovators. So when he says he's able to disrupt things before they disrupt him, I take him at his word. My advice: You should too.2012-10-01T09:10:00ZNew Face Of IT: Line Of Business ExecsWithout a CIO or a corporate IT staff, Jennifer Trzepacz deployed cloud-based tools to help LivingSocial grow by 4,100 full-time employees in one year.http://www.informationweek.com/news/240008153?cid=SBX_iwk_related_commentary_Mobility_developmentMeet Jennifer Trzepacz, the new face of IT. She's never coded anything. She wouldn't even say she's tech savvy. As professional experience goes, she may be as far as you can get from corporate information systems and the data center, because it's her job to deal with the flesh-and-blood of business. She's the VP of human resources at <a href="http://www.livingsocial.com/">LivingSocial</a>, a daily deals service that, along with Groupon, is reshaping local commerce. Thanks to a more than $575 million cash infusion from the likes of Amazon and others in 2011 alone, it's also a company growing at warp speeds, which is real reason to take note of Jennifer Trzepacz. After arriving at LivingSocial in May, 2011, she was handed her marching orders--to fuel a rapid national and international expansion, she had to on board what turned out to be 4,100 new employees. All by year's end. And she had to do it with a starter HR staff of three, no CIO, no corporate IT to speak of, and no HR systems to speak of--not unless you want to count the 15-page Word document that sufficed as an annual review process for the 600 employees that preceded her there. She conquered that hiring binge--with impressive results. And in so doing, she stands as yet another harbinger of a major new dynamic in IT: the ever-increasing group of line-of-business managers willing to take on key corporate technology initiatives themselves, and doing so well enough to embolden their bosses to let others do the same. "Having tech resources involved wasn't that necessary," she told me as we discussed her "technical" role at LivingSocial. "Tech has evolved so much that it's possible for non-hardcore tech people to deploy something effectively, especially with things in the cloud." IT leaders, are you saying, "Oh-oh" to yourself yet? And gulping over the enormous challenge of losing control at the same time you're commanded by fiduciary responsibility to sustain it? I'm not a CIO, nor a minion of the data center, and even I get queasy contemplating your dilemma. To be fair, the forty-something Trzepacz isn't exactly a Luddite. Before LivingSocial she worked in HR at Salesforce.com, Electronic Arts, Yahoo, and CNET Networks. (Full disclosure: I was her colleague at Yahoo and CNET.) Each of those stints brought her shoulder-to-shoulder with engineering and product development talent that bestowed her with an uncommon comfort-level when it comes to all things tech. But still. Even as LivingSocial was hiring as many as 250 people a month, Trzepacz and team took it upon themselves to optimize her recruiting system (JobVite), install a new payroll services provider (ADP), and launch a new HR information system--all cloud-based.   <div style="margin:0; padding:0 0 10px 15px; width:244px; float:right;"> <div style="margin:0; border-top:1px solid black; border-bottom:1px solid black; padding:6px;"> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/global-cio/"><img src="http://twimgs.com/infoweek/1217/217ID_GlobalCIO_75.jpg" width="75" height="75" border="0" align="right" alt="Global CIO" style="margin:0 0 6px 6px;"></a> <div style="margin:0 0 6px 0; font-size:1.3em; font-weight:bold; color:#113e53;">Global CIOs: A Site Just For You</div> Visit <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/global-cio/">InformationWeek's Global CIO</a> -- our online community and information resource for CIOs operating in the global economy. </div> </div>   Along with all that, she evaluated, selected, and implemented--in six weeks--an employee performance management system, Rypple, now Saleforce.com's Work.com. More than any other HR system, this had to serve her company's young employee base consisting primarily of a generation right out of a scene from Aaron Sorkin's "The Social Network." Because a performance system goes to the heart of the company's compensation scheme--and thus to the soul of its employees--it also has to reflect core company values and the most aspirational tenets of its corporate culture. For Trzepacz, that meant enabling her "LivingSocialites," as they call themselves, to collaborate in setting and measuring goals. That also meant supplying conversational props through a no-manual-needed, Facebook-like interface that reflected the "whimsical" nature of the company's approach to consumers and everything else. Not only did she get it all done, but she also delivered some extraordinary results as she tells it. Get this: Some 93% of LivingSocial's employees completed self-reviews. Even more--98%--received peer reviews. About 1,600 contributed "upward" feedback to their own bosses and others above them. Those are not hallmarks of a system employees love to hate, and I know because I loved to hate many of them myself. The system also included what's become 83 "attaboy" badges, some associated with financial incentives. And if you think badges are silly, don’t. They work. In the case of one inside sales team, the badges-for-bucks increased revenue-generating call volume by 82%. If the program expands with similar results, it could result in a material and direct contribution to LivingSocial's bottom line. I won't go so far as to say that would make Trzepacz's HR department a profit center. But there's an ROI case to be made, for sure. And perhaps that's the biggest reason Jennifer Trzepacz and others like her--managers who know their disciplines more intimately IT could--are destined to command ever bigger shares of enterprise technology budgets. They who command the budget are they who wield ultimate decision-making power, making for a new and far different kind of IT.2012-09-18T09:06:00ZTech Startups Reinvent Basic Business ModelsMobile, social, and local have been the hottest trends in tech. But TechCrunch Disrupt panel shows that the action today is in enterprise tech.http://www.informationweek.com/news/240007432?cid=SBX_iwk_related_commentary_Mobility_developmentIt's time to get on your inner Austin Powers. After decades of suspended animation, you pasty-faced denizens of the data center are about to claim a newfound status--as tech's equivalent of the international man of mystery. According to a bellwether conference last week, it's been declared: You're shagalicious, baby. I saw it with own eyes: On the very same stage Facebook founder and silver screen subject Mark Zuckerburg commanded at <a href="http://techcrunch.com/events/disrupt-sf-2012/">TechCrunch Disrupt</a>, four lesser-known startup execs held the throngs as rapt as Zuck did, serving on a panel with the title: "How Enterprise Got Sexy." All yukking aside, the four made a strong case for why cloud services and other associated "stack" technologies promise to shape the landscape as broadly as mobile, social, and local have. One of the reasons may be puerile. But it's not to be underestimated. It's a sense of idealism. It won't supplant greed as an incentive. Nevertheless a desire to "change the world" is an operative motive in entrepreneurial circles. It helped fuel the PC, Internet, social, and mobile revolutions, if only because people fervently believed those enabling technologies would eventually touch everyone everywhere. While enterprise technologies have long offered profit and personal wealth, they didn't beckon to the same vast socio-economic changes Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos, or Zuck personified. Until now, that is. A new generation is being drawn to enterprise tech because it portends similarly sweeping impact. Reason: It's no longer about putting enabling technologies in the hands of IT pros. Instead, the new generation has its sights set on the corporate rank-and-file that in turn echoes through global markets. [ Get out of your comfort zone. Learn how <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/global-cio/interviews/startup-weekend-made-me-a-better-it-lead/240006541?itc=edit_in_body_cross">Startup Weekend Made Me A Better IT Leader</a>. ] Because of the consumerization of IT, Aaron Levie, the 27-year-old co-founder of content-sharing service <a href="https://www.box.com/">Box</a>, believes he's empowering a far bigger universe of knowledge workers. With his service available via mobile devices, he's addressing a customer base outside the office building and out in the field that's applying not just muscle but their own gray matter, too. Fellow panelists Justin Rosenstein, the co-founder of collaboration service <a href="http://www.asana.com/">Asana</a>, and Todd McKinnon, the co-founder of identity management service <a href="http://www.okta.com/">Okta</a>, shared a similar sentiment. "If you think of companies as groups of humans," Rosenstein said in kicking off the discussion, “helping those people achieve their goals is incredibly sexy." Later, McKinnon added: "What's sexy is that we're enabling the enterprise to consume technology like a consumer," setting off a chain reaction. "I can impact a company, and that company can have an impact on the world."   <div style="margin:0; padding:0 0 10px 15px; width:244px; float:right;"> <div style="margin:0; border-top:1px solid black; border-bottom:1px solid black; padding:6px;"> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/global-cio/"><img src="http://twimgs.com/infoweek/1217/217ID_GlobalCIO_75.jpg" width="75" height="75" border="0" align="right" alt="Global CIO" style="margin:0 0 6px 6px;"></a> <div style="margin:0 0 6px 0; font-size:1.3em; font-weight:bold; color:#113e53;">Global CIOs: A Site Just For You</div> Visit <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/global-cio/">InformationWeek's Global CIO</a> -- our online community and information resource for CIOs operating in the global economy. </div> </div>   Of course this change has spawned new challenges. Mobile device management is one of them. But even that's serving as an adrenaline rush. Kirk Dunn, the COO of <a href="http://www.cloudera.com/">Cloudera</a>, the Hadoop-based services provider, waxed about it. "It's not the device that's cool," he said. "It's what's going on behind closed doors in the data center to enable those devices that's cool." One other fundamental change has people humming hunka-hunka burning love. The basic business model is being reinvented. As a result, incumbent players are at more risk than ever of becoming victim to the simple economics pervading the sector. New release cycles shrink from years to months and even days. Line-of-business managers--and their charges--are the ultimate arbiters of technology decisions. So traditional software makers are going to be increasingly saddled with the unsustainable costs of supporting a direct sales corps that can't possibly reach these de facto decision-makers. It all hearkens to factors that are like pheromones so far as the commercial marketplace is concerned. Whether you're creating tech for the enterprise, helping to harness it, or putting it into the hands of end users, you may find yourself strutting your stuff and declaring to no one in particular: "Oh, behave. Yeah, baby!"2012-09-11T11:21:00ZIT Free Agency: A Migraine For ManagersKnowledge workers continue to stampede out the door and onto their own. It's a trend that will only intensify, and it could put you at a competitive disadvantage.http://www.informationweek.com/news/240007107?cid=SBX_iwk_related_commentary_Mobility_developmentHear that steady clomp, clomp, clomp? It's the sound of another nearly 1 million Americans who in the past year alone have willingly hoofed it out of traditional employment and into the ranks of a happy and growing workforce of free agents. As of this very moment, that workforce stands at an estimated 16.9 million strong. And if free agency gave baseball owners headaches, it may well give IT and business managers a migraine. This is a real and present marketplace phenomenon, and its size, scope, and importance are being brought home thanks to the second annual <a href="http://www.mbopartners.com/state-of-independence/docs/2012-MBO_Partners_State_of_Independence_Report.pdf">State of Independence in America</a> report, released last week courtesy of <a href="http://www.mbopartners.com/">MBO Partners</a>, a firm that specializes in serving as an intermediary for people who work on their own and the companies that hire them. Just so you know, we're not talking about the underemployed or the kids who cut the grass. These are knowledge workers, very much like the IT contractors familiar to you InformationWeek readers. But now their numbers are reaching a critical mass. All told, these independent workers account for nearly 10% of the entire U.S. labor force--and an even bigger percentage once you narrow the universe down to those who provide expertise and services to business and IT managers. [ For more on how to keep your best employees from fleeing the cubicle, see <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/global-cio/interviews/how-to-keep-your-best-talent/240005208?itc=edit_in_body_cross">How To Keep Your Best Talent</a>. ] Here are a few of the report's key findings: Growing ranks. The number of independent workers in the market rose 5.6% in the past year alone. In five years, their total is expected to reach 23 million. Even happier to be there. Never mind uncertain income, benefits, retirement programs, and job security, 71% were highly satisfied with their lot, an increase of 13 percentage points over the number of satisfied workers in the 2011 study. Across-the-board attraction. Nope, these aren't already-retired workers double-dipping or Baby Boomers easing into their golden years. While Boomers account for 36% of all independent workers, almost as many--35%--are Gen Xers, workers 33 to 49 years old, in the throes of the most productive years of their lives. Changing attitudes and values play a part in the steady march to independence. As the study notes, the across-the-board imperative to do more with less hasn't exactly made traditional employment a barrel of laughs. But the biggest driver may come down to just how easy it is to create a global corporation of one. The combination of affordable microprocessing power, the Internet, powerful mobile devices, and inexpensive cloud services is giving rise to what I call the <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/global-cio/interviews/watch-out-ive-become-the-boss-of-me/240001252">"incredible shrinking enterprise," or the "micro-enterprise."</a> The Bureau of Labor Statistics noted earlier this year that the size of all U.S. startups has dropped--from 7.6 persons in the 1990s to 4.7 in 2011.   <div style="margin:0; padding:0 0 10px 15px; width:244px; float:right;"> <div style="margin:0; border-top:1px solid black; border-bottom:1px solid black; padding:6px;"> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/global-cio/"><img src="http://twimgs.com/infoweek/1217/217ID_GlobalCIO_75.jpg" width="75" height="75" border="0" align="right" alt="Global CIO" style="margin:0 0 6px 6px;"></a> <div style="margin:0 0 6px 0; font-size:1.3em; font-weight:bold; color:#113e53;">Global CIOs: A Site Just For You</div> Visit <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/global-cio/">InformationWeek's Global CIO</a> -- our online community and information resource for CIOs operating in the global economy. </div> </div>   Here's the thing: These ant-like entities will challenge the corporate establishment on any number of fronts. Because of its reliance on people with transportable technical expertise, IT is especially vulnerable. The allure of independence threatens to ratchet the competition for talent. It's not just a matter of brain drain. Even if you can manage to keep your team intact, your rivals have more options than ever before because they can dip into a rich pool of expertise. That pool will also enable smart companies to react faster and more flexibly to market conditions, and as we all know, it's all about adaptability. It looks like more companies, in fact, are getting smarter, at least on this count. In a 2011 survey, <a href="http://www.staffingindustry.com/eng/Research-Publications/Blogs/Subadhra-Sriram-s-Blog/Only-Dinosaurs-Don-t-Use-Temps">Staffing Industry Analysts</a> found that companies expected to bolster their use of contract workers by 26 percent over the next two years. "It's kind of an accepted way of working on both sides of the equation," says MBO Partners CEO Gene Zaino, noting that more and more companies see contingent workers "as a strategic part of their workforce." Make no mistake: This isn't a blip. The growing number of independent workers represents a structural change in the economy. It's also going to intensify for a reason that few have factored in just yet: Healthcare reform. If the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare, survives this election cycle, it will in just two more years open new options beyond traditional employer-provided healthcare plans, mitigating one of the biggest risks involved with going at it on your own. So that clomp, clomp you hear is only going to get louder. And because of it, you might do well to clomp yourself over to your company's HR department and ask for a plan to cope with a trend that will affect the marketplace for years to come. Couldn't make it to the InformationWeek 500 Conference? Join us for the <a href="https://www.techwebonlineevents.com/ars/eventregistration.do?mode=eventreg&F=1004761&K=7IK">InformationWeek 500 Virtual Event</a>, featuring the best of the conference plus all-new material. It happens Oct. 2.2012-07-31T08:36:00ZApple-Samsung Case Hurts You, Me, The EconomyBoth companies deserve our wrath as their patent trial gets under way. Why? They're propagating an intellectual property war with immense collateral damage.http://www.informationweek.com/news/240004589?cid=SBX_iwk_related_commentary_Mobility_developmentEven though their federal courtroom battle is likely to continue for the next four weeks, the patent dispute between Samsung and Apple already has a loser. Three of them, in fact--you, your company, and our economy. While they're both world-class companies, in this situation I'm booing both. Reason for my wrath: By asserting broad and specious claims over things like the look and feel of smartphones and tablets or the ability to take and send a photo--two of the central claims in the case--these two tech titans are taking advantage of the same egregious weaknesses in patent law that have resulted in an escalating intellectual property (IP) war. It's one that's causing an immense amount of collateral damage: Its direct costs are sapping promising young companies and R&D budgets. It's frustrating the forces of innovation that are vital to economic renewal. And if that's not enough, it's also consolidating more power in the hands of a few companies already uncomfortably close to market domination in mobile--namely Apple and Google, with Microsoft and Amazon not far behind. For a decade now, smart people have been clambering about the dangers of a patent system run amok, especially as a growing phalanx of "patent trolls" snaps up patents just to assert them for the sake of settlements and damages. One of the most clear-headed is James Bessen, an economist and Boston University law school lecturer who teamed up with colleague Michael Meurer to identify, analyze, and quantify the impacts of the IP wars. [ Learn more. Read <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/mobility/business/240004353?itc=edit_in_body_cross">Apple Vs. Samsung Trial: What's At Stake</a>. ] In a <a href="http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2091210">paper they published in June</a>, they reported these astonishing findings: -- A total of 2,150 companies had to defend themselves 5,842 times against patent suits in 2011 alone--an amount of litigation that represents "a wholly unprecedented scale and scope." -- Those claims accounted for $29 billion in direct costs--outside legal fees, damages, and settlement amount. And, oh yeah, it doesn't include indirect costs, like the time and resources it takes a company to defend itself and the price of product delays and market share losses. -- The amount represents a nearly 10% hunk of the $250 billion devoted by all U.S. business to R&D. Much of the burden has fallen disproportionally on small businesses: The defendants in that universe had median revenue of just $10.8 million. Are you getting as legitimately angry as I am yet? Bessen discussed the causes of this outrage with me. When I asked him what created this mess, he put it succinctly enough: "In two words," he said, "the answer is fuzzy boundaries."   <div style="margin:0; padding:0 0 10px 15px; width:244px; float:right;"> <div style="margin:0; border-top:1px solid black; border-bottom:1px solid black; padding:6px;"> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/global-cio/"><img src="http://twimgs.com/infoweek/1217/217ID_GlobalCIO_75.jpg" width="75" height="75" border="0" align="right" alt="Global CIO" style="margin:0 0 6px 6px;"></a> <div style="margin:0 0 6px 0; font-size:1.3em; font-weight:bold; color:#113e53;">Global CIOs: A Site Just For You</div> Visit <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/global-cio/">InformationWeek's Global CIO</a> -- our online community and information resource for CIOs operating in the global economy. </div> </div>   It's easy to claim ownership for real property. Not so much when it involves an abstract idea or invention. It's especially tricky when it comes to software. For one thing, the U.S. Patent Office has shown a penchant for approving patents with vague and sweeping claims--doozies like "information manufacturing machinery" and "commodities on a network." And things get even fuzzier when a patent is for a product used by millions, not just by one person reinforcing an ownership claim by living in a house built on a suburban plot. And it doesn't help that more than 200,000 software patents alone have been filed since the 1990s. If you want to do the right thing by creating an e-commerce product that doesn't infringe on someone else's claim, you may have to slog through as many as 5,000 possibly related patents. Want to advertise, charge, or ship your product? Prepare to sift through more than double that many. No wonder so many companies have become innocent violators. While the number of business victims is bad enough, it gets worse. The patent wars are starting to have a chilling effect on investment markets. Consider this dispatch from Paul Deninger, a foot soldier in the IP war. His company, Evercore Partners, is an investment banking firm that advised AOL on its way to selling a $1.5 billion hunk of its patent portfolio to Microsoft and Facebook. At the recent <a href="https://www.eiseverywhere.com/ehome/index.php?eventid=42080&">AlwaysOn Silicon Valley Innovation Summit</a>, he offered this anecdote: One of his clients is being required by a buyer to prove its patents are squeaky clean. They want ironclad assurances the seller not only owns its patents but that they don't infringe on anyone else's either--a herculean, and perhaps even impossible, test to meet. The point: The growing risk of litigation is making it that much harder for companies to cash in on their blood, sweat, and tears by attracting investments from suitors, as in this case, but also from other sources of growth capital such as venture capitalists and public shareholders, too. What's more, the IP war has spawned an ever more active market for patents themselves. Spurred by the riches yielded by the AOL deal and others, there are, according to Deninger, 150 such packages in play right now. Because they're worth so much, only a few big players are rich enough to buy them. And those few are snapping them up for a single purpose: They want to defend and extend their competitive advantage in mobile. Thanks in part to the IP wars, we all face an even more likely prospect that the mobile market will become <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/global-cio/interviews/240004588">more and more "closed,"</a> forcing us to pay more for fewer options, as market analyst Mike Feibus suggested in his InformationWeek column. Can you say anti-competitive? So enough is enough. The patent wars are imposing what is, in effect, a whopping tax on investment and innovation--a tax, by the way, shared by all of us. Here's to hoping that Samsung and Apple deliver knockout blows to each other. That would be a small victory for the rest of us who are innocent bystanders in a self-defeating system badly in need of reform. Patrick Houston is a former SVP for a new media startup, a GM at Yahoo, and editor-in-chief at CNET.com. He is co-founder of <a href="http://mediaarchitechs.com">MediaArchitechs</a>, which offers strategic product, content and business development consulting to technology-driven media companies. He can be reached at patrick.houston@mediaarchitechs.com.2012-07-20T11:06:00ZYahoo Heroine Mayer Boards Ship Lost In SpaceAs dramatic narrative, it doesn't get much better than this. Here's why we must root for Yahoo’s heroic young CEO to save the day.http://www.informationweek.com/news/240004088?cid=SBX_iwk_related_commentary_Mobility_developmentYahoo isn't just a big business story anymore. It's great theater. Think about it. A woman soars through the engineering ranks to become a top exec at a company on the brink of controlling the world. Yet she abandons a life of certain riches to embark on an adventure aboard a ship lost in space. Our heroine isn't just one of the few women to captain a tech titan. She's one of the youngest. Oh, and yes, she's six months pregnant, too. Hey Aaron Sorkin, I'm claiming dibs on the movie rights. But let's do what every audience does when the curtain rises--suspend disbelief--and accept what a chorus of her Silicon Valley neighbors have been saying about 37-year-old Marissa Mayer: Yahoo pulled off a coup in luring her from Google, where she led its search unit to utter dominance. It's not so hard to give her the benefit of the doubt. For one thing, most everyone else you could blame for Yahoo's missteps during the past five years has departed. Jerry Yang, the company's prideful founder, is gone. So is its hapless chairman Roy Bostock. Several other members of its notoriously weak board have been replaced by others including Daniel Loeb, the investor who led a shareholder's challenge before the turnover. You also have to assume that the new board knew what it was doing when it shifted away from what seemed like a certain bet that it would go long-term with interim CEO Ross Levinsohn, an experienced media exec who seemed like the right choice to leverage Yahoo's consummate strengths in news, sports, and finance. Nevertheless, it's still bound to be high drama as the plot proceeds from here, with Mayer occupying the controls of a company where the physics of momentum prevail--a big company moving toward irrelevance tends to keep moving there. Mayer, Google's most famous female engineer, is bound to be at the center of more tension, if only because she now must take on the complicated task of reconciling the opposing forces that have long been tearing at Yahoo's soul: Its substantial media properties and its engineering-driven culture. What's more, she'll also have to confront (like the CEOs before her) the bias inherent to Yahoo's Silicon Valley roots. The SV harbors an innate disdain for media's creative content types and a singular obsession with those who build "scalable products." Many people, including me, have described <A HREF="http://www.informationweek.com/news/global-cio/interviews/240000230"> Yahoo's fate as a binary matter.</A> It's either a media company, or it's a technology company. One or the other. Yahoo's problem is that it's been in denial. It has stubbornly continued trying to become a Silicon Valley product and platforms company, even though its most enduring lines of business are its media properties. But it's time to cease framing Yahoo's dilemma as either-or. The fact is this: All of media now relies on technology for its very being. For heaven's sake, media is software. But here's the nuance Meyer and her minions at Yahoo must realize: While the platform is essential to its media properties, Yahoo's media properties are essential to its platforms. The combination--platform and media property--constitutes the company's real calling. Everything else is dross.   <div style="margin:0; padding:0 0 10px 15px; width:244px; float:right;"> <div style="margin:0; border-top:1px solid black; border-bottom:1px solid black; padding:6px;"> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/global-cio/"><img src="http://twimgs.com/infoweek/1217/217ID_GlobalCIO_75.jpg" width="75" height="75" border="0" align="right" alt="Global CIO" style="margin:0 0 6px 6px;"></a> <div style="margin:0 0 6px 0; font-size:1.3em; font-weight:bold; color:#113e53;">Global CIOs: A Site Just For You</div> Visit <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/global-cio/">InformationWeek's Global CIO</a> -- our online community and information resource for CIOs operating in the global economy. </div> </div>   And Yahoo has its dross. It's compiled a long list of failures, most of them products with little or nothing to do with its essential content properties. Among its fizzles: Yahoo 360 (social networking), Go (mobile phone app), Briefcase (file storage), Auctions (online sales), and Jukebox (streaming music). Because I worked at Yahoo as a VP and general manager--I was let go in a cutback--I have an insider's perspective on this peculiar company impulse. Yahoo took on the costly--and ultimately wasted--product development efforts because that's what Silicon Valley companies do. But succumbing to peer pressure on this count is like saying CBS needs to develop its own proprietary 3D TV technology, or that News Corp. needs its own telephone network. Perhaps that's the moral in the Yahoo story for all of us: Companies succeed when they identify their most differentiating strengths, and teeter when they fail to abide by them. Marissa Mayer arrives as a new--and sympathetic protagonist--in the twisty Yahoo narrative: A young mother and rare female head of a tech behemoth facing long odds. I'm rooting for her. I hope she comes out starring as the heroine who saves the day, because there is, after all, nothing better than a happy ending. Patrick Houston is a former SVP for a new media startup, a GM at Yahoo, and editor-in-chief at CNET.com. He is now a offers strategic product, content and business development consulting to technology-driven media companies. He can be reached at <a href="mailto:patrick.houston@mediaarchitechs.com">patrick.houston@mediaarchitechs.com</a>.2012-07-19T13:15:00ZWhy Big Is Bad When It Comes To DataCalling it "big data" doesn't do it justice. Gushing data would be far more accurate.http://www.informationweek.com/news/240004027?cid=SBX_iwk_related_commentary_Mobility_development <div class="inlineStoryImage inlineStoryImageRight"> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/galleries/software/bi/232700311"><img src="http://twimgs.com/informationweek/galleries/automated/769/01_BI-and-IM-Salaries_tn.jpg" alt="Big Data Talent War: 10 Analytics Job Trends" title="Big Data Talent War: 10 Analytics Job Trends" class="img175" /></a> <div class="storyImageTitle">Big Data Talent War: 10 Analytics Job Trends</div> (click image for larger view and for slideshow)</div>  Too bad the IT terms we coin stick like a price tag to a cheap trinket. Once they're on, you can't claw them off. Or when you do, they leave that ugly residue. Take "big data." It's the catchphrase du jour. You hear it everywhere. The tech media, including InformationWeek, covers it thoroughly. Database and analytics vendors are glomming on to it for the cachet it gives their marketing efforts. I had to grin when SAS CEO Jim Goodnight, a wizened figure if ever there was one, properly scoffed in a recent <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/video/1727396637001">interview with InformationWeek's Doug Henschen</a> that "we're talking about big data now because everyone got tired of talking about the cloud." There's nothing inherently wrong with being a new thing. Trouble is the term is just so imprecise. What's it say when the generally authoritative <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_data">Wikipedia</a> describes "big data" right off the bat as a "loosely defined term"? Lately, my meanderings have taken me into a number of encounters with some of the best minds dealing with "big data," including researchers from Intel and MIT, hands-on executive managers at companies such as LinkedIn, eBay, and Adobe, and entrepreneurs such as <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/healthcare/clinical-systems/240002705">Ash Damle of MEDgle</a>. And the more I bump into the topic of "big data" the more concerned I've become about the term itself. Reason: It falls so far short of not only describing the phenomenon, but also its applications, opportunities, and ramifications--for IT, business, the way we live and work, too. [ Entrepreneurship has a strong pull for many of our best and brightest. <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/global-cio/interviews/240003884?itc=edit_in_body_cross">Is The Corporate Brain Drain Inevitable?</a> ] Unless you're a computer science PhD or a database professional, it's easy to take the term literally. And among those who do, don't forget, are the corporate execs and line-of-business managers with whom even those of you in the know must deal. To them, "big" is just about the amount. It's not difficult to imagine the petabytes piling up out there, given the contrail of information everyone exhausts as they move across the various fixed and mobile networks. Of course, volume is the most immediate issue many of you face in dealing with your data. At a big data panel held at Google's Silicon Valley HQ last week, the participants addressed at length the costs of warehousing, and along two dimensions--size and duration. It's not just how much data you want to process and store but for how long. And they also raised the issue of diminishing returns. When do the costs of keeping and sifting over time outweigh practical benefit?   <div style="margin:0; padding:0 0 10px 15px; width:244px; float:right;"> <div style="margin:0; border-top:1px solid black; border-bottom:1px solid black; padding:6px;"> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/global-cio/"><img src="http://twimgs.com/infoweek/1217/217ID_GlobalCIO_75.jpg" width="75" height="75" border="0" align="right" alt="Global CIO" style="margin:0 0 6px 6px;"></a> <div style="margin:0 0 6px 0; font-size:1.3em; font-weight:bold; color:#113e53;">Global CIOs: A Site Just For You</div> Visit <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/global-cio/">InformationWeek's Global CIO</a> -- our online community and information resource for CIOs operating in the global economy. </div> </div>   Even as quantity remains a crucial concern, the forefront of big data will be increasingly defined by two other "V" words--velocity and variety, a point well made by Michael Stonebraker, an MIT electrical engineering and computer science professor specializing in database research, who patiently tutored me in the cutting-edge of big data in terms a non-expert could grasp. Data isn't static, like standing waters of a reservoir. It's increasingly dynamic, generated and collected in real time. Even transactional data is being captured at both ends--and at every point in between. Ergo, data gushes. And it gushes from an expanding number of sources, including all the sensors monitoring more and more of what we do. One of my favorite examples comes from Eve M. Schooler, an Intel R&D principal, who pointed out that public utility smart meters in many municipalities now report energy usage every 15 minutes--frequently enough to discern any number of behavioral patterns, such as when you're home (or not), alone or with others. And that's just one silent stream. Those three "V's"--volume, velocity, and variety--go back a ways, of course. Gartner market analyst Doug Laney used them to describe big data as far back as 2001. But it doesn't hurt to revive aged, but still valid, thinking if only because "big data," properly defined, will present a multitude of challenges to many of you reading this, and soon enough. One is analytics. MIT's Stonebraker contends that the "simple analytics" that data warehouses can apply to relational databases just aren't up to the complex, covariant calculations required to tap the probabilities and predictive insights--the real gold--within the gushing streams of unstructured data spouting up everywhere. To make his point about the limitations of relational databases and the simple analytics applied to them, Stonebraker cites one pharmaceutical company trying to mine the data being captured by its 8,000 research scientists, each with an individual electronic Web notebook. Imagine the payoff, he suggests, in finding a groundbreaking new drug out of probabilistic connections between one researcher's works seemingly so far from another's in distance and subject matter. While there are informatics systems capable of integrating 10 data sources, there are none that can choke down thousands, Stonebraker said. "Hell will freeze over before you get it done," he said. Finally, describing data as nothing more than "big" makes it seem too benign. There ought to be an adjective that at least hints to the grave implications to privacy lurking ahead as companies, governments, and heaven-knows-who-else become ever more adept at collecting, storing, processing, analyzing, and visualizing data. As you might expect, Stonebraker foresees momentous economic and social value. At the same time, he also sees the dark side. "Privacy is going to be a huge issue," he said. "And it's largely going to be a political issue, too." So if "big" doesn't cut it as an appropriate modifier, then what does? Maybe we should start an effort to call it something else, before the term is popularized beyond any redemption whatsover. "Gush data" anyone? Patrick Houston is the co-founder of MediaArchitechs. He is a former SVP for a new media startup, a GM at Yahoo, and editor-in-chief at CNET.com. He can be reached at patrick.houston@mediaarchitechs.com.2012-07-11T08:30:00ZWhat Food Trucks Can Teach IT ProsFrom the growing caravan of rolling restaurants in cities like San Francisco, three trends emerge that even big companies and their IT pros should taste.http://www.informationweek.com/news/240003234?cid=SBX_iwk_related_commentary_Mobility_developmentOne of the hottest spots for startups isn't in the cubicles and incubators of Silicon Valley. It's on the streets nearby. Literally. As in where the Goodyears meet the macadam. And for the price of lunch, you can gain the same glimpse that the high powered venture capitalists get into emerging technologies, market trends, and business models as they blend, bake, and stew into commerce as it's coming to be. I'm referring to food trucks--an exploding number of them, serving up meals in San Francisco, Chicago, Austin, and other metros, too. Unlike the "roach coaches" that classically cater doughnuts and coffee at construction sites, or push carts dishing up dogs, these are new concept, rolling restaurants going by names such as <a href=" <a href="">Le Truc</a>, <a href="http://blogs.sfweekly.com/foodie/2012/02/ire_trea_may_be_the_worlds_fir.php/">Eire Trea</a>, and <a href="http://www.japacurry.com/">JapaCurry></a>. I'm calling your attention to this phenomenon not just because I'm a foodie. I got a jump on the preliminary results from study by a husband-and-wife market research team exploring the phenomenon, as part of their ongoing work into the swiftly changing nature of the small business economy. That change includes the <a href=" http://www.informationweek.com/news/global-cio/interviews/240001252">rise of independent workers and what I've previously identified as the "cell-sized enterprise</a>." They're Steve King and Carolyn B. Ockels, who are partners at <a href="http://www.emergentresearch.com">Emergent Research</a>, which has been providing forecasts for companies such as Intuit, SAP, and American Express. As they started to describe their early food truck findings, it became clear there were broad and important parallels to be noted for most companies, big and small--and even for those of you in IT. Because the food truck phenomenon is so new, the evidence surrounding it is largely anecdotal. But even at that, it's clear something's cooking. The researchers found that the city of San Francisco has now licensed about 250 food trucks--compared to just 20 four years ago. While the number represents a fraction of the city's thousands of brick-and-mortar restaurants, that doesn't mean it's insignificant. Remember: This is the kind of trend-spotting that can lead you to first-mover advantage that's won the day in so many markets and for so many companies. Based on the research, the food trucks represent directions that, when passed through my prism, mean three important things to you. 1. Emphasis on operating expense: Some of you will recognize this as one of the factors driving businesses to the cloud and away from owning their own server farms. What applies to data centers also works for restaurants: Rather than expending capital on storefront space, which takes longer to write off, food trucks also represent the more flexible financial advantages and the faster tax deductions that come with tilting money away from fixed expenses to variable costs. The shift reflects a broad reality of the post-recession economy. For the forseeable future, that reality affects IT plans, as you seek to meet line-of-business strategies designed to please customers seeking the same opex-vs.-capex advantages. 2. Growing importance of prototyping: This is another post-recession practice gaining momentum. Many food truck owners want to open their own traditional restaurants. Because capital is so scarce--and expensive--these food-preneurs use their trucks to hedge their bets. In many cases, they're relying on their trucks to "test concepts, neighborhoods and recipes," before they commit themselves to grander, real brick-and-mortar eateries, says King. In the same way, many of the startups I've encountered, and an increasing number of established companies, are dispensing with the brash "go-big-or-go-home" way of doing business. Even when it involves a technology platform or an application rollout, more and more companies are validating their efforts in small steps. 3. Be mobile, local, social: To me the local-social-mobile chant resonates of the blah-de-blah I keep hearing mostly from consultants, analysts, and especially smartphone application developers looking for even more reasons to tangle us in connections we don't need or want. Checking in on Foursquare makes me want to gag myself with a spoon. But when it comes to food trucks, these imperatives look more like concrete business practices to be broadly applied to real commerce. Food trucks go to their customers. Food truck owners have become savvy at reaching customers virally where they live, work, and, of course, eat. More than anything, King and Ockels note, the increasing public appetite for locally grown, prepared, and provided food attests to the changing nature and growing importance of neighborhoods and community. People are seeking more real--as opposed to virtual--connections to each other, and that holds major implications about the way any business operates anywhere. As I think about it, maybe food trucks are coming to represent the way that companies, of all sizes, need to operate in today's complex and fast-changing marketplaces, and even when it comes to IT. You need to be able to move fast and flexibly through twists, turns, and bottlenecks to meet your customers where and when they want you to satisfy their most basic needs--in ever more palatable ways. Patrick Houston is the co-founder of MediaArchitechs. He is a former SVP for a new media startup, a GM at Yahoo, and editor-in-chief at CNET.com. He can be reached at <a href="mailto:patrick.houston@mediaarchitechs.com">patrick.houston@mediaarchitechs.com</a>. 2012-07-03T08:28:00ZIntel Puts Future On ExhibitImagine life without house keys or using an entire wall as a touch display. Walk through an exhibit of some of Intel's most intriguing research projects to date.http://www.informationweek.com/news/240002947?cid=SBX_iwk_related_commentary_Mobility_developmentCorporate R&D labs exist to pioneer the future. Get inside one and you'll be treated to an extraordinary show and tell. If ever you can get a peek, that is. Most companies consider their research efforts state secrets, and if they showed you, they'd have to kill you, to put a commercial spin on the old spy one-liner. Not Intel, though. The company turns its labs inside out--and actually makes some of its seminal work public annually at a daylong event called Research@Intel. Even if some of these projects might never come to be, they make for engaging and thought-provoking spectating. How about turning any wall--or any surface, for that matter--into a display? That's just what you see here as one of Intel's researchers uses touch gestures to move and manipulate photos. Using off-the-shelf hardware components--the secret is in the software--Intel demonstrated a way to also interact with a video and music library and a social media activity stream. It even showed a way to display your personal photos by the mood they convey. This interactive surface project was among 20 conceptual or prototype technologies and their applications Intel touted at this year's Research@Intel event in San Francisco. Yes, Intel's efforts are aimed eventually at selling more of its microprocessors. But if this year's Research@Intel was any indication, those chips will be increasingly finding their way into novel uses with far-reaching consequences. Imagine a life without keys, an international business meeting with no language barriers, or never losing your way inside a hospital or office building. It was striking to witness how far Intel is going to put people and their experiences at the center of its work. After all, the market for chips, as one researcher put it, relies at the end of the day on the humans who will create the demand for them. Intel has studied, for example, how people drive in at least eight different nations. Did you know: Australians keep everything in the car because theft isn't an issue there? Some subthemes also were on display. Many of these futuristic projects rested on the use of so-called big data--massive, unstructured, real-time amounts of it--generated not just by our online activities but the growing number of devices and sensors populating our lives. With university researchers, Intel is exploring ways to analyze the oceans of data we're spewing to reveal actual, rather than hypothetical, ways we behave. What happens when there's enough data to dispense with speculation about us and instead certifies our individual and collective behaviors beyond doubt? What would that mean for a company when all the guesswork comes out its business and prediction becomes certainty? The implications are enormous. That all of life can be quantified, as it increasingly is, presents exciting opportunities--and frightening questions. But for now, leave the heady stuff behind and focus your eyes on the visual feast of the future according to Intel.Intel researchers turned this fanfold surface into a way to display--and manipulate--photos. The secret is in the algorithms, which make interactions on any surface more accurate and precise. Imagine in this case a digital photo gallery of the family that you, or a guest, could move, enlarge, or change at will. This hearkens to day when digital media can be used in an endless variety of spaces and places.  Recommended Reading: <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/byte/news/personal-tech/smart-phones/240001681">New Technology Adds Keyboard Feel To Touchscreens</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/video_conferencing_telepresence/230400006/infocus-creates-giant-tablet-for-conference-rooms">InFocus Creates Giant Tablet For Conference Rooms</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/government/mobile/232602757">Navy Opens New Research Facility for Robotics</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/social_networking_consumer/240002294/facebook-buys-facecom-at-what-privacy-cost">Facebook Buys Face.com: At What Privacy Cost?</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/hardware/desktop/240000768">Leap Motion: Control PC With Hand Gestures</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/government/info-management/232900054">DARPA Challenge Seeks Robots To Drive Into Disasters</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/galleries/software/productivity_apps/232900858">10 Must-See Tech Product Ideas From Startups</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/government/security/232700190">Robot Jellyfish May Be Underwater Spy Of Future</a>A team of graduate students at Carnegie Mellon University collaborated with Intel to use embedded systems in a pioneering new way: to create a robot that can march up and down the aisles of a store scanning every item on the shelves along the way. The robot doesn't just "see" the shelves--it maps them, and precisely. Think of it as Google maps with Street View, only for a store. And the data the robot generates isn't just for helping you find your way to an item. A tireless robot would allow a store to follow its stocks down to the item. Imagine the savings from instantaneously ordering just the right amount of product, or the sales generated by having a fast-moving item always in stock. Recommended Reading: <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/byte/news/personal-tech/smart-phones/240001681">New Technology Adds Keyboard Feel To Touchscreens</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/video_conferencing_telepresence/230400006/infocus-creates-giant-tablet-for-conference-rooms">InFocus Creates Giant Tablet For Conference Rooms</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/government/mobile/232602757">Navy Opens New Research Facility for Robotics</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/social_networking_consumer/240002294/facebook-buys-facecom-at-what-privacy-cost">Facebook Buys Face.com: At What Privacy Cost?</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/hardware/desktop/240000768">Leap Motion: Control PC With Hand Gestures</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/government/info-management/232900054">DARPA Challenge Seeks Robots To Drive Into Disasters</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/galleries/software/productivity_apps/232900858">10 Must-See Tech Product Ideas From Startups</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/government/security/232700190">Robot Jellyfish May Be Underwater Spy Of Future</a>The Intel-Carnegie-Mellon team put the scanning robot to use for other purposes, too. Based on the data it collected from the university's bookstore, the researchers created an interactive version of the shop, resembling it in every way. Here, Jon Francis, a doctoral candidate, shows how the immersive system lets customers select and see more about items on the shelf. By the way, this use isn't just a future one. It's present. The virtual store is up and running on the school's Pittsburgh campus. Recommended Reading: <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/byte/news/personal-tech/smart-phones/240001681">New Technology Adds Keyboard Feel To Touchscreens</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/video_conferencing_telepresence/230400006/infocus-creates-giant-tablet-for-conference-rooms">InFocus Creates Giant Tablet For Conference Rooms</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/government/mobile/232602757">Navy Opens New Research Facility for Robotics</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/social_networking_consumer/240002294/facebook-buys-facecom-at-what-privacy-cost">Facebook Buys Face.com: At What Privacy Cost?</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/hardware/desktop/240000768">Leap Motion: Control PC With Hand Gestures</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/government/info-management/232900054">DARPA Challenge Seeks Robots To Drive Into Disasters</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/galleries/software/productivity_apps/232900858">10 Must-See Tech Product Ideas From Startups</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/government/security/232700190">Robot Jellyfish May Be Underwater Spy Of Future</a> Using fingerprint and facial recognition as shown here, Intel demonstrated how we might one day be able to dispense with our house keys. The system here doesn't recognize just a single person, either. It can identify each of the people in a group. If two of the people in the group aren't authorized, or the entire group isn't authorized for a certain time of day, too bad. Johnny can't bring his pals into the house to get on the gaming console when he should be doing his homework alone. Is Johnny being a good boy? Then mom can provide access to him and his buddies via her cell phone. Intel also is exploring how other individual traits--someone's gait or a particular mannerism--could be applied to a security system. These recognition technologies could find other uses, too. As part of this exhibit a researcher walked up to a camera and, when it recognized him, the system displayed his calendar on the wall. How could you ever forget a date when it's in your face? Recommended Reading: <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/byte/news/personal-tech/smart-phones/240001681">New Technology Adds Keyboard Feel To Touchscreens</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/video_conferencing_telepresence/230400006/infocus-creates-giant-tablet-for-conference-rooms">InFocus Creates Giant Tablet For Conference Rooms</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/government/mobile/232602757">Navy Opens New Research Facility for Robotics</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/social_networking_consumer/240002294/facebook-buys-facecom-at-what-privacy-cost">Facebook Buys Face.com: At What Privacy Cost?</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/hardware/desktop/240000768">Leap Motion: Control PC With Hand Gestures</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/government/info-management/232900054">DARPA Challenge Seeks Robots To Drive Into Disasters</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/galleries/software/productivity_apps/232900858">10 Must-See Tech Product Ideas From Startups</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/government/security/232700190">Robot Jellyfish May Be Underwater Spy Of Future</a>Cars are loaded with microprocessors. Microprocessors process data. They collect it, too. So, what if you take all the data from a car's "activity" stream and put it to use? And what if the car was constantly connected, too? Got a trip scheduled? Your car becomes aware and predicts you need to fill up. A heads-up display just above the dashboard tells you where to get gas at what price. A touchpad on the steering wheel lets you interact with the information systems, which could also extend to social engagements, such as sharing music with friends while they're on the road, too. In this screen, Intel simulates how a network of connected car cameras could record and report traffic conditions in real time. Recommended Reading: <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/byte/news/personal-tech/smart-phones/240001681">New Technology Adds Keyboard Feel To Touchscreens</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/video_conferencing_telepresence/230400006/infocus-creates-giant-tablet-for-conference-rooms">InFocus Creates Giant Tablet For Conference Rooms</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/government/mobile/232602757">Navy Opens New Research Facility for Robotics</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/social_networking_consumer/240002294/facebook-buys-facecom-at-what-privacy-cost">Facebook Buys Face.com: At What Privacy Cost?</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/hardware/desktop/240000768">Leap Motion: Control PC With Hand Gestures</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/government/info-management/232900054">DARPA Challenge Seeks Robots To Drive Into Disasters</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/galleries/software/productivity_apps/232900858">10 Must-See Tech Product Ideas From Startups</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/government/security/232700190">Robot Jellyfish May Be Underwater Spy Of Future</a>Did you know those "smart" utility meters on many houses can send data to a utility company every 15 minutes? Your consumption data alone says a lot about you, such as when you're home or not, alone, or with others. Can you trust your utility provider with that knowledge? Or should you control it in your own cloud? That's just one of the issues Intel is exploring as part of an overarching "sustainability" project that records and then manages overall energy consumption, based on data from sensors in your house and your car. Here Intel researcher Eve M. Schooler shows a tablet app depicting a "trusted personal energy cloud." Recommended Reading: <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/byte/news/personal-tech/smart-phones/240001681">New Technology Adds Keyboard Feel To Touchscreens</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/video_conferencing_telepresence/230400006/infocus-creates-giant-tablet-for-conference-rooms">InFocus Creates Giant Tablet For Conference Rooms</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/government/mobile/232602757">Navy Opens New Research Facility for Robotics</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/social_networking_consumer/240002294/facebook-buys-facecom-at-what-privacy-cost">Facebook Buys Face.com: At What Privacy Cost?</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/hardware/desktop/240000768">Leap Motion: Control PC With Hand Gestures</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/government/info-management/232900054">DARPA Challenge Seeks Robots To Drive Into Disasters</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/galleries/software/productivity_apps/232900858">10 Must-See Tech Product Ideas From Startups</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/government/security/232700190">Robot Jellyfish May Be Underwater Spy Of Future</a>2012-06-26T11:28:00ZWhen Data Is A Matter Of Life Or DeathHealthcare analytics startup offers insights into how to develop the numbers when it counts for everything.http://www.informationweek.com/news/240002705?cid=SBX_iwk_related_commentary_Mobility_development <div class="inlineStoryImage inlineStoryImageRight"><a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/galleries/healthcare/interoperability/240001675"><img src="http://twimgs.com/informationweek/galleries/automated/805/Maine_Healath_infonet_tn.jpg" alt="8 Health Information Exchanges Lead The Way" title="8 Health Information Exchanges Lead The Way" class="img175" /></a> <div class="storyImageTitle">8 Health Information Exchanges Lead The Way</div> (click image for larger for slideshow) </div> Not long ago, a colleague clapped me on the back as we were leaving the office. "It's been a good day," he crowed. "No one died." He was kidding and to make a point: Don't take work too seriously when the stakes aren't mortal. But what if they are? As they are for Ash Damle, the 35-year-old founder of an about-to-be launched, cloud-based, big data healthcare analytics company called <a href="http://www.medgle.com/">MEDgle</a>. Because MEDgle could make the difference between life and death, I found myself pestering Damle for details. I discovered what it takes to collect copious amounts of raw data from obscure journals and exotic databases and create sophisticated probability algorithms, while making it useful to help nurses, doctors and others diagnose, triage, and treat flesh-and-blood people. Maybe seeing how MEDgle met the standards required by such high stakes will offer you some insights for developing, crunching, or using your own data more effectively, too. [ Tech is having a major impact on healthcare. Read <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/healthcare/mobile-wireless/240002203?itc=edit_in_body_cross">When Smart Mobile Technology Meets Good Science</a>. ] Damle was among about 200 entrepreneurs in San Francisco last week for a two-day <a href="http://www.entrepreneurship.org/en/eMed.aspx">Life Sciences Venture Summit</a>. While the burgeoning opportunities in medtech lured most of those attending, Damle arrived no doubt at the behest of nature and nurture: His father is a pulmonary physician, his mother a pediatrician. An only child, he grew up to the heartbeat of conversations about the common concerns shared by docs. He went off to MIT, earned degrees in computer science and mathematics, and started a search consultancy. Then began connecting dots to what he learned from the time he occupied a high chair. Dot 1: The emergence of diagnostic tools--like <a href="http://symptoms.webmd.com/#/introView">WebMD's symptom checker</a>. Dot 2: The coming explosion of data spawned a growing number of medical devices and sensors hitting the market. Dot 2 seemed particularly important because of a law of nature Damle identified. "If you have data," he said, "there's an inherent demand to do something with it." As personality types go, Damle describes himself a clinician--curious about conditions, diseases, and their causes. As he began to survey the market, he knew, by temperament and training, there had to be better system to help healthcare pros determine what's ailing a patient. So began what has since become a laborious five-year effort to build--and bulletproof--MEDgle, a name, by the way, created to suggest MEDicine's GooGLE. (Get it?) It took so long for a good reason: MEDgle relies on an intricately branched decision-making tree, comprised of symptoms and the probabilities among their multitudinous relationships to each other. Damle has been trying, in effect, to replicate with software the same diagnostic intelligence, intuition and judgment exercised by TV's "<a href="http://www.fox.com/house/">House</a>." "Little did we know how much data is needed to mimic the human mind," Damle said. Thus began the search for data. But, as in any data-based endeavor, quality isn't to be confused with quantity. To build MEDgle, Damle says he's relied on that programmer's adage--you know, GIGO, for garbage-in-garbage-out. (It is comforting that some things don't change.) For input, he had to tap into a broad array of sources--medical journals, government statistics, and obscure rare-disease databases. Over time, he says, the company collected medical data from hundreds of sources. "We had no idea how much data it would take," he told me. Of course, Damle and his engineers applied their own algorithms to the data, including a semantic search technology for which Damle says he'll soon receive a patent. But patent or not, software programming smarts alone weren't up to this task. As Damle says, you can't finesse the outcomes to a system like MEDgle's by creating machine instructions. No matter how brilliantly conceived, the rules invariably result in unforeseen consequences--unacceptable in healthcare. That led to a second laborious facet of developing MEDgle's big data analytics: Peer review. Over time, he had physicians--one of them his father--reviewing every output, to the tune of 20,000 hours. He didn't consider his results acceptable until the doctors said they were. Good enough wasn't good enough. Damle says MEDgle is being used now by five beta customers. He offered me a glimpse at several demonstration applications for the platform. One could be used by a patient, another by a nurse at the end of phone line.  <div style="margin:0; padding:0 0 10px 10px; float:right; width:185px; text-align:center;"> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/galleries/hardware/reviews/232301330?pgno=35"><img src="http://twimgs.com/informationweek/galleries/automated/711/nursekimcrop.jpg" width="175" height="175" alt="eNurse Kim" title="eNurse Kim" hspace="0" vspace="0" border="0" style="margin:0 0 3px 0; padding:0;" /></a> (click image for larger view) <div style="margin:5px 0 0 0; padding:0;font-weight:bold; font-size:1.2em; color:#990000;">MEDgle's eNurse Kim</div> </div> But the most intriguing of these was a mobile SMS service that resembles the back and forth between a physician and a patient. Though the exchange appears to be conversational, it's not. Using MEDgle's platform, the responses are prompted by answers, which prompt more questions prompted by the analytics-based probabilities, leading to more questions, and so on. (Click on the image to the right for an example.) Damle says, in one deployment, the MEDgle platform slashed the time for an acute conditions diagnosis from 15 to eight minutes. In the end, Damle believes he's working on a way to scale "hyper-personalized" healthcare--by enabling providers to make better decisions faster from anywhere, based on a data-driven model of an individual, who lives and could very well die. Patrick Houston is the co-founder of MediaArchitechs. He's a former SVP for a new media startup, a GM at Yahoo, and editor-in-chief at CNET.com. He can be reached at patrick.houston@mediaarchitechs.com. Get the new, all-digital <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/gogreen/052112hc/?k=axxe&cid=article_axxt_os">Healthcare CIO 25</a> issue of InformationWeek Healthcare. It's our second annual honor roll of the health IT leaders driving healthcare's transformation. (Free registration required.)2012-06-22T08:30:00ZLean Startup Concept No Silver BulletLatest business management craze is called "The Lean Startup." Don't swallow this lite philosophy without asking some critical questions first.http://www.informationweek.com/news/240002450?cid=SBX_iwk_related_commentary_Mobility_developmentIn a career spanning decades, I've encountered dozens of business management panaceas. Some of you remember. MBO? TQM? Reengineering? All promised revitalization, growth, and great, good fortune--only to come, and then go. So when I encounter any such silver bullet these days it only makes me want to reach for one-as in the kind that comes in a shiny aluminum can with a golden libation inside. We continue to be assaulted by business nostrums. For heaven's sake, it seems like we've been hearing ad infinitum about "consumerizing" or becoming the "social enterprise" or "mobilizing the enterprise." This week, I'm pointing a loaded one at my head (in the vicinity of my mouth) over the latest of these crazes: A philosophy spawned by a 33-year-old Silicon Valley guru named Eric Ries and prescribed in his best-selling book, <a href=" http://theleanstartup.com/">"The Lean Startup: How Today's Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses."</a> I don't know how it's playing in Peoria--you tell me--but everywhere I go in Silicon Valley I hear entrepreneurs reciting the "lean" lingo, like "minimum viable product," "persevere or pivot," and the "build-measure-learn feedback loop." In a recently <a href="http://www.wired.com/business/2012/05/ff_gururies/">published profile</a> about Ries, Wired magazine noted the "lean" way of life is making its way into old school Fortune 500s like General Electric, and the Harvard Business School is offering a course based on it. Just last week, even Informationweek.com sported an <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/global-cio/interviews/240002067">exegesis about lessons from "lean" for IT</a>. Before I get too cynical, know I've read the book. I've recommended some its practices. I've embraced some too as my own startup conceives, develops, and consults to technology-fueled media startups. I concur with the precept at the heart of the lean approach: Even the most brilliant and experienced people don't know enough to outwit emerging, rapidly changing, and increasingly complex markets, especially when it comes to products and business models without precedent. According to the "lean" way of life, the only prudent way to determine what the market wants is to deploy the scientific method, the very same one we learned in grade school: State an hypothesis and then do an experiment to prove or disprove it. This inherently more humble approach to business represents a refreshing contrast to the entrepreneurial hubris that struts its stuff down the streets of Palo Alto where people live by the self-assured motto, "Go big or go home." If only for that reason, I'm attracted to its tenets. But that doesn't mean I'm willing to swallow it whole. The main reason: The "lean" philosophy is just that. It's not just a tactic or strategy. To listen to its champions, it's an ideology. I started wincing on Page 14 of the book when Ries called the Lean Startup idea "a global movement." A movement? Really? Like civil rights? Environmentalism? The Arab Spring?   <div style="margin:0; padding:0 0 10px 15px; width:244px; float:right;"> <div style="margin:0; border-top:1px solid black; border-bottom:1px solid black; padding:6px;"> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/global-cio/"><img src="http://twimgs.com/infoweek/1217/217ID_GlobalCIO_75.jpg" width="75" height="75" border="0" align="right" alt="Global CIO" style="margin:0 0 6px 6px;"></a> <div style="margin:0 0 6px 0; font-size:1.3em; font-weight:bold; color:#113e53;">Global CIOs: A Site Just For You</div> Visit <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/global-cio/">InformationWeek's Global CIO</a> -- our online community and information resource for CIOs operating in the global economy. </div> </div>   To me, when someone touts a practice as a movement that's the telltale sign of fad, one that over-promises like so many predecessor methodologies that came and went because we failed to subject them stringently enough to critical thinking. While they're rare, there are others who refuse to guzzle the Ries zero-calorie Kool-Aid. The Wired profile pointed out one certainly worth noting: Respected Silicon Valley venture capitalist Ben Horowitz who's said in <a href="http://allthingsd.com/20100317/the-case-for-the-fat-startup/">his own blog post</a> that, to hell with skinny, startups need to be fat--monied and rapaciously profligate enough to dominate a market before someone else does. One of the most outspoken and quotable curmudgeons I found lives far afield from the precincts of Silicon Valley. Maybe distance makes the head grow stronger, because 47-year-old <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nick_Pelling">Nick Pelling</a>, a serial entrepreneur from Surrey, south of London, pulls no punches. Consider his screed on the <a href=" http://nanodome.wordpress.com/2011/10/05/lean-startups-suck-here-are-10-reasons-why/">10 reasons why "lean startups suck."</a> For all its reliance on the scientific method, Pelling declares that "lean" isn't science at all; it's only validation is anecdotal. And its reliance on metrics hardly makes it any newer than the "scientific management" methods pioneered by a turn-of-the-20th-century efficiency expert named <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Winslow_Taylor">Frederick Taylor</a>. But Pelling's main rap is that the "lean startup" is naive. "A lean startup is only really self-fundable," he says. And the reason is that, in the real world, how many people are willing to give their money to someone who wants to go off and conduct "experiments" with it. Instead, someone funding a business, whether an entrepreneurial or an intrapreneurial one, wants confidence, comfort, and proof you know what you're doing. "What kind of a 'contract' can you have with a business angel by taking this approach?" Pelling asks. He talked to dozens. And so far he hasn't found a one--not for his latest <a href="http://www.nanodome.com/">security camera venture</a>. "It's a key disconnect with the way people actually behave," he says. The sources of capital "don't want to fund your industrial education," he says, concluding that Ries doctrines "are much more about learning than about leaning." As I told Pelling during our Skype discussion, I'm not as strident. There are "lean" methods and tactics you might well find applicable and fruitful. Nevertheless, I won't, and you shouldn't, take the approach for what it's not--and it's not a silver bullet. There's only one of those that delivers on its promise, and I'm about to pop the top on it right now. Patrick Houston is the co-founder of MediaArchiTechs. He is a former SVP for a new media startup, a GM at Yahoo, and editor-in-chief at CNET.com. He can be reached at patrick.houston@mediaarchitechs.com. At this year's <a href="http://informationweek.com/conference">InformationWeek 500 Conference</a> C-level execs will gather to discuss how they're rewriting the old IT rulebook and accelerating business execution. At the St. Regis Monarch Beach, Dana Point, Calif., Sept. 9-11. 2012-06-13T09:30:00ZPCs Tell Tablets: We're Not Dead YetThe hoopla coming out of Apple this week notwithstanding, the PC is very much alive in a post-PC world. Here's why.http://www.informationweek.com/news/240001933?cid=SBX_iwk_related_commentary_Mobility_developmentRemember the "bring-out-your-dead" scene from Monty Python and the Holy Grail? John Cleese's medieval peasant tries to get Eric Idle's Dead Collector to cart away a plague victim. But the old fellow draped over Cleese's shoulder is very much alive and keeps insisting, "I'm not dead." "He says he's not dead," the Collector responds. "Well, he will be soon," says Cleese's peasant. "He's very ill." Anyway, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grbSQ6O6kbs">this clip</a> kept looping in my head as I was crafting this column. For a while now, skeptics have been leaving the PC all but buried by the burgeoning ranks of smartphones and tablets. But at last week's <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/windows8/240001391">Computex expo</a> in Taipai, Intel, Microsoft, Asus, Acer, and others made it very clear the PC remains full of life. It was an especially pointed rejoinder, arriving as it did on the eve of the Apple developers' conference, which dominated the headlines this week. And I have no doubt some of you are grumbling as you read this about what must seem like a monkey wrench thrown into to your well-oiled plans to start deploying tablets to the corporate users for whom you so lovingly care. But you might do well to reconsider. [ Convergence is coming. <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/hardware/handheld/240001749?itc=edit_in_body_cross">Should Your Next Smartphone Be A Phablet?</a> ] Let's give credit where it's due. Microprocessor and mobile market analyst Mike Feibus saw this coming before I did. <a href="http://www.feibustech.com/home/2012/6/1/next-week-the-pc-gets-interesting-again.html">He predicted</a> the huge Asian tech exhibition would spawn a series of product introductions to prove reports of the PC's demise very much premature. Feibus has been following Intel, AMD, ARM, Qualcomm, and other chipmakers for years. His contacts made it obvious that Intel, which has thrived on institutionalized paranoia, wasn't going to cede the future to Apple or Google. So under the auspices of its Ultrabook initiative--similar in sheer sweep to its 2003 market-making Centrino Wi-Fi campaign--Intel began addressing the weaknesses the tablet exploited. En route, it forged an entire Intel Inside ecosystem--processor, chipset, storage, I/O, display, materials, and more--to make a machine thinner, lighter, and longer-lasting. Even though the implications of Intel's efforts were becoming apparent to insiders like Feibus, it took the Computex coming-out party to give concrete expression to them. I didn't make the trip to Taipei, but I found myself scouring several reports about the new systems unveiled there, including a <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/windows/microsoft_news/240001467">preview</a> and a <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/galleries/hardware/handheld/240001555">slideshow</a> by InformationWeek's Paul McDougall. You can see for yourself the commonality among them. One system especially stood out as a bellwether: The Acer Iconia W700. For the sake of brevity, I'll spare you the geek speak. Suffice it to say it sported a Windows 8 Metro touchscreen OS, a 11.6-inch display, a powerful yet power-efficient third generation Intel Core processor (a.k.a., Ivy Bridge), USB 3.0, and Thunderbolt I/O ports. "It's positioned as a tablet," Feibus observed. "But with those big, fat pipes, that system can be anything you want it to be." And anything means that, along with a keyboard and some software, it can also serve your laptop and desktop, too. One system to replace them all? In so averring, Feibus touched on the ultimate significance of the coming crop of--what would you call them? If a smartphone meeting a tablet is called a "phablet," what's a tablet meeting a laptop meeting a desktop? A tabtop? Lapdesk? Whatever, these hybrids aren't your father's convertible. (You remember those, right? The ones that brought Microsoft OneNote into being.) Not only are the hybrid tablet manufacturers accommodating them to prevailing user tastes, they're also positioning these systems to satisfy a maxim Feibus has been touting for years. Mike's maxim: People want just two--count 'em two--devices, one for the pocket and one for the briefcase. Yet, many of us, including me, tote three, or more. I have a smartphone in my pocket. But invariably into my backpack I throw my laptop and an iPad, and sometimes I'll even toss in the iPad's companion Bluetooth keyboard I bought, too. Even though my iPad does a good job of replicating my laptop, I just can't wean myself away from the raw horsepower I obsessively believe I'll need to be fully productive when I'm working in the office, at home, or on the road. My aching back--literally--requires me to concur with Feibus. I don't want to lug a laptop and a tablet. While tablets are quickly achieving advantage in this tussle for briefcase supremacy, it's not time to count out the laptop PC. In fact, by adhering to Mike's maxim, Intel, Microsoft, and PC makers are getting close to laying a hand on tech's real Holy Grail: Less is always more. Or at least maybe that's why another line from the not-dead-yet guy slung over Cleese's shoulder keeps echoing in my head, and it's one PC makers may be sing-songing too: "I feel happyyy. I feel happyyy." Patrick Houston is the co-founder of MediaArchiTechs. He is a former SVP for a new media startup, a GM at Yahoo, and editor-in-chief at CNET.com. He can be reached at <a href="mailto:patrick.houston@mediaarchitechs.com">patrick.houston@mediaarchitechs.com</a>. InformationWeek is conducting a survey on Windows 8 adoption. Upon completion of our survey, you will be eligible to enter a drawing to receive a 16-GB Apple iPad. Take our <a href="http://informationweek.2012Windows8.sgizmo.com/s3/">InformationWeek 2012 Windows 8 Survey</a> now. Survey ends June 15. 2012-05-31T10:10:00ZWatch Out: I've Become The Boss Of MeCloud services are helping to create a new wave of super-powered, cell-sized businesses. Thanks to us, you may have to manage quite differently.http://www.informationweek.com/news/240001252?cid=SBX_iwk_related_commentary_Mobility_developmentThe partnership papers should arrive any day to officially mark the birth of my new business. After 20 years of working for someone else, I'm now working for me. I'm my own boss. I'm warning you right now. Watch out for my new boss and me. Even though my boss and I don't imminently threaten to upend your market (we do dream, though), that doesn't make us any less meaningful. Here's why: We represent a growing cohort of "microenterprises." And we're getting bigger and more powerful--even as we shrink in size. In aggregate, we threaten to steal your best employees, snatch your top customers, and surprise you with new business models. Think of us as a biological phenomenon, like an unseen colony of bacteria ready to sneak up on you with a bad cold, nausea, or worse. Though we've been around for a while, we've largely been ignored--most notably by government number crunchers and policymakers who confuse "small" with "insignificant." But in April, Facebook paid nearly $1 billion for Instagram, a two-year-old, 13-employee photo-sharing startup. (A billion dollars! Just 13 employees!) Then, in mid-May, New York Times columnist Tom Friedman--he of "world-is-flat" fame--<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/20/opinion/sunday/friedman-do-you-want-the-good-news-first.html?_r=2&ref=thomaslfriedman">waxed rhapsodically</a> about us. It's "easier and cheaper than ever to publish your own book, start your own company, and chase your own dream," he proclaimed. "Never have individuals been more empowered, and we're still just at the start of this trend." Of course, what Friedman recently discovered is what you, my boss, and I have known for while: Cloud-enabled software services are picking up where the PC and Internet left off to create a next generation of super-powered, cell-sized businesses. For a small monthly subscription fee, my tiny company has access to same systems that, as recently as five years ago, only corporate behemoths could deploy. Even more simply put, the cloud is lowering the barriers of entry--to the thickness and permeability of a membrane. Yes, there are more and more of us. Just how many? Depends on how you define us. Dawn Rivers, the editor and publisher of the Microenterprise Journal, likes to think of us as companies that don't employ anyone else but the owners. She cites a Census Bureau stat that counts "non-employer" companies at 21 million. The <a href="http://www.aeoworks.org/index.php/site/">Association For Enterprise Opportunity</a>, the self-proclaimed "voice of microenterprise," defines us as businesses with fewer than five employees, founded with less than $50,000 in seed capital. By those criteria, AEO puts us at 25 million establishments, providing work for some 32 million people. Claudia Viek, the CEO of the California Association for Microenterprise Opportunity, which owns the aptly named "<a href="http://www.microbiz.org">microbiz.org</a>" domain, says that in the Golden State alone, self-employment has increased by 25% in just the past five years. But there's something even more astonishing taking place--something hardly anyone else knows about. The federal government's official bean counters have, experts tell me, largely overlooked us, because we're not perceived as the job creators the politicians want to boast about, especially in a down economy. But in a <a href="http://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2012/03/art4full.pdf">paper published in March</a>, two economists at the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics put their finger on a corollary trend. They found that individual microbusinesses are getting even smaller. The average size of non-seasonal startups fell from 7.6 employees in the 1990s to 4.7 in 2011. Do the math, and the decline accounts for an astonishing 38% plunge. The significance, as Rivers so nicely distilled it, comes down to this: "The size at which a business reaches scale has gotten much, much smaller." Whoa. Think about the implications of that observation to the dynamics of the marketplace.   <div style="margin:0; padding:0 0 10px 15px; width:244px; float:right;"> <div style="margin:0; border-top:1px solid black; border-bottom:1px solid black; padding:6px;"> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/global-cio/"><img src="http://twimgs.com/infoweek/1217/217ID_GlobalCIO_75.jpg" width="75" height="75" border="0" align="right" alt="Global CIO" style="margin:0 0 6px 6px;"></a> <div style="margin:0 0 6px 0; font-size:1.3em; font-weight:bold; color:#113e53;">Global CIOs: A Site Just For You</div> Visit <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/global-cio/">InformationWeek's Global CIO</a> -- our online community and information resource for CIOs operating in the global economy. </div> </div>   And, yes, while the economy is hardly cooking, don't write us off as people who can't find work otherwise. According to <a href="http://www.mbopartners.com/state-of-independence">a survey</a> conducted at the behest of MBO Partners, a company that serves "solopreneurs" with a suite of back office services, 55% of us made a proactive choice to work on our own. I did. Nor are we card-carrying AARP members, in career twilight time. According to the MBO study, 48% of us are Gen Xers. We are 30- to 49-year-olds, in the throes of adult responsibility. To put it bluntly, we're not the "second-class citizens" you may have once considered us to be. In fact, we represent a formidable talent pool, and the most enlightened companies are tapping into us. MBO CEO Gene Zaino told me he sees more and more companies creating special offices, tasked with staffing smaller component projects from the ranks of contract workers, as an alternative to hiring a big, blue chip consulting firm for a huge engagement fee. And here's a stat you probably don't want your own employees to see: The MBO study found that 80% of us are satisfied with being on our own. Along with your rivals vying for your best talent, you've got a lifestyle choice luring them too. It also means, thanks to us, you may have to manage quite differently. As Amazon.com's Jeff Bezos told Friedman, corporate managers may have to adopt a style more akin to that of gardening, watering, weeding, and fertilizing people and ideas--instead of engineering them into productivity from on high. But the biggest reason to watch out for is how readily we can be overlooked. Like the germs on your hands, you may not be able to see us. That doesn't mean we're not there. Now instead of competing with foes around the world, Zaino says, large enterprises have to start worrying about new business models that pop up right in their backyards. My boss and I have been talking it over. We don't think we're as far away as your backdoor. We prefer to think we're right under your nose. Patrick Houston is the co-founder of MediaArchiTechs. He is a former SVP for a new media startup, a GM at Yahoo, and editor-in-chief at CNET.com. He can be reached at <a href="mailto: patrick.houston@mediaarchitechs.com">patrick.houston@mediaarchitechs.com</a>. SMBs have saved big buying software on a subscription model. The new, all-digital <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/gogreen/043012smb?k=axxe&cid=article_axxt_os">Cloud Beyond SaaS</a> issue of InformationWeek SMB shows how to determine if infrastructure services can pay off, too. Also in this issue: One startup's experience with infrastructure-as-a-service shows how the numbers stack up for IaaS vs. internal IT. (Free registration required.)2012-05-21T12:00:00ZYahoo ResuMess: The Trouble With Entitlement CultureThe resume drama for Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson had a quiet player: a corporate culture that seeks fairness but produces employees who feel entitled. Here's what his successor, and all managers, must know about that problem.http://www.informationweek.com/news/240000718?cid=SBX_iwk_related_commentary_Mobility_developmentIn all the coverage surrounding Yahoo's "ResuMess" scandal, one major development remained largely buried. But as a former Yahoo exec, I took quick notice. The reasons: It may have played a significant role in CEO Scott Thompson's departure, it represents one of the biggest challenges confronting his replacement, and it holds lessons for anyone faced with managing the growing legions of employees who consider their jobs a birthright. But before I explain, I'm duty-bound to issue the same disclaimer I did in my last column about <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/global-cio/interviews/240000230">lessons in Yahoo's meltdown</a>: After working there as a general manager and VP, Yahoo sent me packing in 2008. Take that into account as you assess my conclusions herein. Here's what happened to make me go "oh oh." As reported by the New York Times, after Thompson attempted to explain away a computer science degree he didn't have, Yahoo employees and managers <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/19/business/the-undoing-of-scott-thompson-at-yahoo-common-sense.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&src=rechp">contacted board members directly</a>, seeking his dismissal. Directly! Does anyone beside me consider that brazen, especially when it comes to an egregious but hardly criminal ethical breach represented by an inflated resume? I've groused about my leaders to my colleagues. I've even kvetched to my boss. Who hasn't? Complaining about the mucky mucks is as ubiquitous as the water cooler itself. But never have I gone to a director to call for my CEO's head. Not even when I worked at a startup where I regularly ran into board members, sometimes over drinks.   <div style="margin:0; padding:0 0 10px 15px; width:244px; float:right;"> <div style="margin:0; border-top:1px solid black; border-bottom:1px solid black; padding:6px;"> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/global-cio/"><img src="http://twimgs.com/infoweek/1217/217ID_GlobalCIO_75.jpg" width="75" height="75" border="0" align="right" alt="Global CIO" style="margin:0 0 6px 6px;"></a> <div style="margin:0 0 6px 0; font-size:1.3em; font-weight:bold; color:#113e53;">Global CIOs: A Site Just For You</div> Visit <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/global-cio/">InformationWeek's Global CIO</a> -- our online community and information resource for CIOs operating in the global economy. </div> </div>   But then again, this is Yahoo. I can attest to its culture of entitlement. Individual employees claimed not only a right to their opinion but a wont to invoke it too. Or as one of my former exec-level colleagues put it, "The failing of Yahoo had as much to do with the culture [where] anyone can pull the cord and shut down the assembly line." [ Corporate leader as hero is a myth. See <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/thebrainyard/news/industry_analysis/232901524?itc=edit_in_body_cross">The Fall Of The Messiah Leader</a>. ] Yahoo did its own part to spoil the child--what with stock options, subsidized lunches, and free gym memberships, lattes, and sodas. What's more, Yahoo democratized itself too. When I was there, everyone at Yahoo HQ sat in a cube. Of course, I'll side with those of you already keystroking the flame mail about the virtue of empowered employees. But what happens when it gets to where they become ungovernable? Yahoo may have a broken business model, an errant strategy, and a hapless board. It may have had weak leadership. But it also may be just as wanting for stronger "followership." Consider one of the most revealing, publicly available datasets I've encountered beyond a company's balance sheet. It comes from Glassdoor, a jobs and career community where employees have already anonymously offered 2.5 million ratings and reviews for more than 160,000 companies. According to Glassdoor, 879 respondents have given Yahoo's leadership an average <a href="http://www.glassdoor.com/blog/yahoo-interim-ceo-senior-leaders-face-uphill-battle-gaining-employee-trust/">2.4 rating</a> on a scale that tops out at 5. That compares to a 3.9 for nearby Google, or 4.5 for neighboring Facebook. Ouch. <center><img src="http://twimgs.com/informationweek/news/2012/05/Yahoo_CEOs_by_Quarter_Th ompson_May_2012_550.jpg" width="550" height="395" alt="Yahoo! CEO Approval Rating by Quarter - courtesy of Glassdoor" title="Yahoo! CEO Approal Rating by Quarter - courtesy of Glassdoor" /> Image courtesy of Glassdoor</center> Glassdoor also tracks leadership approval ratings, a number that hearkens to those that bedevil presidents. According to Glassdoor, Yahoo employees have been swift to give their CEOs the thumbs down. Co-founder Jerry Yang became the chief at an 81% approval. In just three quarters, his rating plunged to 24%. When his successor, Carol Bartz, took over, she started with a 91% rating that steadily drifted downward -- to 33% by the time she got the heave ho. I discussed Yahoo's prospects with Rusty Rueff, a member of Glassdoor's board and a workplace consultant. Rueff rose through the ranks at New York-based Pepsico before arriving as an HR exec in 1998 at Silicon Valley's Electronic Arts gaming company where, he admits, he was shocked by the egalitarian way things were done. Even during his own interview process, "everyone had a say," he told me--bosses, peers, and subordinates alike. His advice for Ross Levinsohn, the 48-year-old Yahoo exec anointed to replace Thompson, is the same for anyone at any level managing in a "teetering" company. "You have to paint for your employees the best vision you can," he says. In my own experience that means finding a mission that transcends money, self-interest, or company success. People who make a living with their intellect really do want to change the world, and you need to find a genuine way to tap their idealism. "If there's a time to be transparent," he added, it's at times of turmoil. It's okay to stray from the damn-the-torpedoes-full-speed-ahead line companies invariably invoke. He encourages managers to be "way empathetic." In my book, that means telling them something like this: I know you're ticked and frustrated and anxious about this corporate BS, and, honestly, I am, too. But the main lesson for you may reside in what Rueff suggests for the rest of Yahoo's managers. And he agreed with me when I paraphrased it in the form of an old saying: People don't quit their job--they quit their boss. Make it so they won't quit you. "Create personal relationships as strong as you can," Rueff said. That means making an earnest effort to help them grow. And by all means, nurture the team. People may abandon a cause or an institution, but they're loath to desert friends and colleagues with whom they've shared the struggle. And when someone won't play it as a team sport? "If they can't change, they have to go." The workplace is changing, and fast. But everyone, managers and employees together, need to understand that there's one certainty in uncertain times: Doing business always entails a struggle. No one's guaranteed an easy time. Patrick Houston is the co-founder of MediaArchiTechs. He is a former SVP for a new media startup, a GM at Yahoo, and editor-in-chief at CNET.com. He can be reached at <a href="mailto:patrick.houston@mediaarchitechs.com">patrick.houston@mediaarchitechs.com</a>. At this year's <a href="http://informationweek.com/conference">InformationWeek 500 Conference</a> C-level execs will gather to discuss how they're rewriting the old IT rulebook and accelerating business execution. At the St. Regis Monarch Beach, Dana Point, Calif., Sept. 9-11. 2012-05-11T10:40:00Z3 Lessons From Yahoo's Meltdown, From An InsiderA former Yahoo exec who was laid off offers insights from the company's five-year drive to self-destruction.http://www.informationweek.com/news/240000230?cid=SBX_iwk_related_commentary_Mobility_developmentBig company meltdowns always happen in slow motion. And if you've done business with the company, invested in it, or, heaven forbid, worked for it, it's especially like watching a 10-car pileup at a frame per second. No matter how gruesome it gets, you can't turn your head. The most recent wreck I've been observing has been Yahoo, the dawn-of-the-Internet-Age icon that suffered yet another setback this week when Scott Thompson, the latest of its four CEOs in five years, was accused of fudging his resume. Since integrity is the issue at the heart of Yahoo's travail du jour I'll give full disclosure: I worked as a VP and general manager at Yahoo for three years until 2008, when I found myself headed for the door in the first of a series of layoffs. As anyone who's been fired will tell you, it leaves you "raw," the very word ousted Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz used in a recent <a href=" http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/05/06/BULR1ODK9J.DTL&ao=all">San Francisco Chronicle story</a>. So take my own emotional state into account as I tell you what I learned--and what you can too--from Yahoo's five-year drive to self-destruction, as seen by someone who sat in a passenger seat. Lesson One: Don't deny your strengths--even when others do. This is a variation on what's become a business school basic. Focus on your core competencies. Stick to your knitting. Yahoo didn't. From a very early age, Yahoo--it's only 17 by the way--was shaped as a media company. While at first Yahoo may have been a search directory, Yahoo Finance, Yahoo News, Yahoo Sports, and the Yahoo Home Page came to define the brand and, most of all, its being. When I joined the company in 2005, it was being led by a cadre of execs who came from the media world, including CEO Terry Semel, who spent 24 years at Warner Brothers, and COO Dan Rosensweig, who rose through the ranks at Ziff-Davis. (I worked for him there, too.) Yahoo, at the time, was asserting its consummate strengths--its platforms in search, community, and shopping to name a few--against conventional media companies, which were late to the technology-driven new media game, or were clueless about it. But instead of taking on its most vulnerable rivals at their weak point--technology--Yahoo decided to challenge its strongest rival, Google, and at its strength in search marketing. Rather than pressing its advantage by continuing to invest in its media properties, Yahoo sunk billions to build its own search marketing platform. Meanwhile, it showed a whole cadre of its top media execs the door, and I'm not referring to yours truly. Just before I departed, I attended an executive meeting where we were addressed by a guest of honor--none other than Steve Jobs. I vividly recall what he told us: "What is all this content bulls--t. You're not a content company. You're a technology company." Steve Jobs was brilliant but not infallible. On this, he was wrong. Lesson Two: Beware belonging to a club. Steve Jobs words to us that day validated an oft-cited truism: Silicon Valley isn't a place; it's a state of mind. Yahoo could never see itself clearly because it lived, literally, within spitting distance of Apple, Intel, Google, Oracle, and Cisco, and the thousands of others tech companies that together make for their own singular culture. These members of the Silicon Valley old boys network are tech through and through. But Yahoo isn't--not down to the bone. It's some 700 million monthly users turn to Yahoo first for content--news, sports, entertainment--enabled by technology second. Its fellow Silicon Valley club members: Their customers turn to them for technology first. Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang, who maneuvered himself into the CEO's role in 2007, quickly found himself discredited after turning down a rich $29 per share buyout bid by Microsoft. By 2009, he gave up the reins to Bartz. Both happened to serve on the same Cisco board of directors. Cozy, eh, especially in light of the fact that Bartz had no experience whatsoever in media. None, zero, zilch.   <div style="margin:0; padding:0 0 10px 15px; width:244px; float:right;"> <div style="margin:0; border-top:1px solid black; border-bottom:1px solid black; padding:6px;"> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/global-cio/"><img src="http://twimgs.com/infoweek/1217/217ID_GlobalCIO_75.jpg" width="75" height="75" border="0" align="right" alt="Global CIO" style="margin:0 0 6px 6px;"></a> <div style="margin:0 0 6px 0; font-size:1.3em; font-weight:bold; color:#113e53;">Global CIOs: A Site Just For You</div> Visit <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/global-cio/">InformationWeek's Global CIO</a> -- our online community and information resource for CIOs operating in the global economy. </div> </div>   I found it deliciously ironic when Bartz began pursuing a media-first strategy, replete with an emphasis on, gasp, original content. (Content is a dirty word to Silicon Valley types because "it doesn't scale.") Because Yahoo continued to lose the search wars to Google, she had little choice. But even she couldn't admit it publicly. During a 2009 interview with AllThingsD doyen Kara Swisher, Bartz, tellingly, answered a straightforward question--what is Yahoo?--with a long, loopy paragraph about being "the place where millions and millions of people come every day to check in with the people and things they're interested in." Well, that resonates of concrete business model, doesn't it? Two years later, Yahoo's board unceremoniously fired Bartz: Then board chairman Roy Bostock gave a clearly-blindsided Bartz the news over the phone. (Lotta good club membership did her at that point.) It's no wonder hedge fund head Daniel Loeb is making daily headlines these days with an increasingly acrimonious proxy fight against Yahoo.Lesson Three: When it's no longer time to persevere, don't. Bartz may not have been cut out as Yahoo's consummate CEO, but Yahoo's board and its executives certainly should have taken to heart a motto she's recited since her Autodesk days--one she invoked this past week during a business school commencement address: "Fail fast forward." Recognize your errors, quickly, and then move on. Instead, Yahoo continues hang back and on to its gloried past--when it enjoyed the same stature Facebook does today. But its brief bright shining moment is over. Its shareholders, employees and users would have all been better off had it relented to Microsoft's takeover. The rationale for resisting: Yahoo and its shareholders were better off betting on its prospects as independent company. False. A Microsoft-Yahoo combo would have made a far better rival to Google in search, and sooner. And, paired with Microsoft's MSN/MSNBC brands, it would have been a media juggernaut, one too big to fail. Now, it may simply be too late for Yahoo to thrive as a standalone company ever again. Even setting CEO Scott Thompson's fudged resume aside, the Loeb-led shareholder's fight is exacting a toll the long-struggling company simply can't endure. It's gotten to the point where Yahoo is looking like the Information Age rendition of industrial age icon GM--a company destined for an irreversible slide into oblivion. Yahoo isn't just a case study for CEOs, board members, high financiers, and business school professors. There's much to takeaway whether you run a tech startup or an IT department. You have to work hard to identify your competencies, especially those that differentiate you from others. You have to brutally honest about yourself, your team, and your organization: You can't allow others to define you, especially if they work in a nearby segment or industry. Never get too insular, but look instead to other industries, companies, or regions outside your own neighborhood. And when staying the course isn't working after a decent interval, admit it. Patrick Houston is the co-founder of MediaArchiTechs. He is a former SVP for a new media startup, a GM at Yahoo, and editor-in-chief at CNET.com. He can be reached at patrick.houston@mediaarchitechs.com. At this interactive <a href="https://www.techwebonlineevents.com/ars/eventregistration.do?mode=eventreg&F=1004316&K=7TW">Enterprise Mobility Virtual Event</a>, experts and solution providers will offer detailed insight into how to bring some order to the mobile industry innovation chaos. When you register, you will gain access to live webcast presentations and virtual booths packed with free resources. It happens May 17. 2012-05-08T09:56:00ZFramehawk Says BYOD Is Not Rocket ScienceStartup Framehawk, which counts a former NASA physicist as a co-founder, uses desktop virtualization and its own communications protocol to safely extend corporate apps and data to tablets and smartphones.http://www.informationweek.com/news/232901604?cid=SBX_iwk_related_commentary_Mobility_developmentLeave it to a rocket scientist to provide one of the most promising approaches to solving an IT challenge tantamount to landing a human on Mars. But that's just what a former NASA deep-space-communications expert and his real-time data delivery co-founder may have done with a startup that aims to resolve the dilemma of extending corporate applications to the edges of the anywhere, everywhere, and anytime workplace. It does so in a conceptually simple way: Taking desktop virtualization beyond its bottlenecks--sending pixel-based images of data instead of the data itself via its own, new highly efficient communications protocol. The co-founders are Stephen Vilke and Peter Badger. Their company is <a href="http://framehawk.com/">Framehawk</a>. By declaring the four-year-old San Francisco startup a success after its barely gotten off the ground, I boldly go where no one has gone. But I'll risk being wrong, if only to launch a healthy debate about the growing number of mobile device management alternatives, including the recent dual-OS solutions like the one that being proffered by ARM as featured on <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/hardware/processors/232901161">InformationWeek's Valley View Webcast</a>. To understand where Framehawk is heading you have to understand the career trajectory of Vilke, the company's 41-year-old CTO, and Badger, its 44-year-old CEO. Vilke was a NASA physicist who worked on developing data reduction and graphic display software for spacecraft communications. (Think of <a href="http://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/">Voyager</a> as mobile device!) He connected to Badger during a stint at Barclays Global Investors, where they were worked on developing high-security, real-time data systems used for stock market trading. They found themselves spending years of their respective careers trying to resolve the latencies encountered by client-server networks. Eventually, they came to see desktop virtualization as key to real-time performance. In 2008, they left Barclays together to start a self-described "better-Citrix" VDI company of their own--only to be waylaid by the Great Recession. That, in turn, sent them on their way to consulting companies on a variety of VDI solutions, at which point they came to two revelations. The first: "VDI vendors are terrible," Badger told me. They represent a slow, bad user experience caused by unreliable mobile networks and the core TCP communication protocol, which is optimized, as you know, for accuracy not throughput. The second: Along with the smartphone, the tablet especially would forever change the complexion of corporation applications. So Framehawk's space communications wizards--like Vilke, the company's core R&D team came from NASA--created their own <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UDP-based_Data_Transfer_Protocol">UDP-based protocol</a> that, the company claims, is fast and consistent even over low-bandwidth networks with highly variable latency, loss, and jitter. They call it Lightweight Framebuffer Protocol, or LFP, in the alphabet-soup argot of these things. Framehawk works like this: Corporate data and apps feed into Framehawk's server platform--with, get this, the whole shebang remaining behind the corporate firewall. Its architecture sends neither application nor data beyond. Instead it transforms the output into an image that's sent to a tablet or smartphone.What's more, Framehawk puts a thin skin on the corporate app to adapt it to the mobile device, allowing for things like control by touch gesture instead of a desk-bound mouse. I've seen (admittedly cursory) Framehawk demos of Salesforce and, better yet, one of those ceaselessly updating trading desk apps work on an iPad. The apps looked nothing like their desktop uses but instead took on the look and feel of a native tablet app. Even my rudimentary explanation should make the benefits obvious. With Framehawk, there's no need to write a corporate app for mobile. All the heavy processing is done on the data center's industrial strength servers. Most of the data fetching takes place over its big pipes. And most of all, the data stays put--only visual representations of it go out. No data transmits over the mobile network. None remains resident on the mobile device itself. So the risk of its being hacked, stolen, lost, or misplaced diminishes. Yes, there's cause for skepticism. For one thing, Framehawk so far lacks an offline capability, which was raised as an issue by a panel of IT pros assessing it at the recent <a href="http://www.undertheradarblog.com/blog/announcing-the-winners-of-under-the-radar-consumerization-of-it-2/">Under the Radar conference</a> where I first learned about the company. <a href="http://www.savidtech.com/">Savid Technologies</a> CEO Mike Davis, an Information Week contributor and security expert, raised other concerns in a chat we had. While Framehawk looks great for the highly visual dashboard applications it sports in its demonstrations, neither one of us has seen it work with apps demanding fine motor skills, like filling in the cell of a spreadsheet. And while I'm bullish on Framehawk's approach, Mike, for one, believes the future of MDM lies with the dual OS approach, because it represents a path of least-resistance, available to corporate users from mobile carriers or in the hardware itself. When compared to those two options, Framehawk isn't cheap. The company tells me it sells its services as a cloud-based subscription starting at $250,000 year--and going up from there. But there's more, not less, to like about Framehawk. It isn't a bootstrap. It's raised $16.5 million in venture capital funding. It's claimed an impressive beta client in the form of the wealth management arm of Switzerland's UBS banking behemoth. And it was the "mobile access" category winner as voted by an audience of 350 CIOs, IT pros, cloud entrepreneurs, and VCs attending the Under the Radar conference. While Framehawk might not be the be-all, end-all answer to the BYOD dilemma, it still goes a long way to proving that a solution exists, here and nearby, not at the unreachable distances of deep space. Patrick Houston is the co-founder of MediaArchiTechs. He is a former SVP for a new media startup, a GM at Yahoo, and editor-in-chief at CNET.com. He can be reached at patrick.houston@mediaarchitechs.com. At this interactive <a href="https://www.techwebonlineevents.com/ars/eventregistration.do?mode=eventreg&F=1004316&K=7TW">Enterprise Mobility Virtual Event</a>, experts and solution providers will offer detailed insight into how to bring some order to the mobile industry innovation chaos. When you register, you will gain access to live webcast presentations and virtual booths packed with free resources. It happens May 17. 2012-04-30T11:27:00Z3 Examples: Visual Technologies Change The RulesBusinesses of all shapes and sizes will soon be held to a higher standard of customer experience as they try to sell products, or convey content of any kind.http://www.informationweek.com/news/232901157?cid=SBX_iwk_related_commentary_Mobility_developmentPlay with the picture embedded below. Then come back and read this. Done? Good. Now I can make my point more vividly and in fewer words: A major shift in the information economy is taking place--right before your eyes. Literally. Words, while still a mainstay, are being supplanted by an immersive, deeper, richer, and increasingly widespread visual language--one that includes, but also extends beyond, high-definition photos and video. <div id='2635' class='tourwrist-tour-embed direct'></div> <script type='text/javascript' src='http://tourwrist.com/tour_embed.js'></script> <script type='text/javascript'>loadEmbeds();</script> The implication: Businesses of all shapes and sizes are going to held to a higher standard of customer experience as they try to sell products, or convey content of any kind, for that matter. During the last few months I've seen a number of signposts all pointing in the same direction. The new iPad with its retina display that touts a million more pixels than the highest of high-def TVs offers a viewing experience that will surely affect media consumption broadly. Pinterest's explosive popularity has been fueled by its emphasis on its catalog-like photos that are so engaging and easy to consume. And the Lytro camera, which debuted early this year, lets you change the focal point to any part of a photo, as many different times as you want--after the photo has been taken. But in the last couple of weeks I've also encountered three new startup companies proffering exciting new capabilities that serve to slap an exclamation mark on the trend toward an information economy dominated by visuals. Consider: 1. TourWrist. This two-year-old San Francisco startup created the panorama, or "pano," that you see here. <a href="http://"www.tourwrist.com">TourWrist</a> took the top $1 million prize for being named the "People's Choice" winner of the recently held Demo Spring 2012 launch competition. Charles Armstrong, the company's 31-year-old founder, says the pano represents a "third medium" that goes beyond conventional fixed-field-of-view photos and video, primarily by using the accelerometers, magnetometers, and gyroscopes inside more and more mobile devices to let you determine your own literal point of view--up, down, left, right, in and out. "The 'pano' puts the users in control, a dynamic that can't be undervalued," he says. "The visceral nature of that experience makes the memory of a moment much more vivid--and in a file size not much bigger than a digital photo." And before you dismiss Armstrong as a sentimentalist, you should know that RE/MAX, the giant real estate agency company, is already deploying TourWrist to its 89,000 agents for virtual home tours, based on the knowledge that people are 75 percent more likely to buy a property from a realtor who provides a video listing. let alone something like a pano. 2. Arqball. Instead of a "pano," this two-year-old Charlottesville, Va., startup has come up with a "spin." <a href="http://www.arqspin.com">Arqball</a> processes a series of simultaneously taken pictures, partly on its free smartphone app and partly on its servers, to render an image that you can examine as though you're <a href="http://arqball.com/blog/?p=137">turning it in your hand</a>. Jason Lawrence, a 33-year-old computer science professor at the University of Virginia who co-founded Arqball, says he's producing images that previously cost upwards of $500 for a service to produce them for you, or several thousands of dollars to acquire systems to produce them yourself. "The most significant aspect of the technology is that it puts a new type of visualization in the hands of many more people," he told me. Arqball is focusing on an obvious business application: "People that sell things on Web sites," Lawrence declares. As skeptical as I try to be about Arqball's prospects--it's a tiny startup with a business model based on sales of the rotating stage used to create its "spins"--I'm wowed by its potential. Think what this could do for online retailers, such as eBay, Amazon, or Best Buy. 3. Knoema. Founded by two Vlads--Vladimir Eskin and Vladimir Bougay--<a href="http://knoema.com">Knoema</a> is to data what WordPress is to blogs. It's a self-proclaimed platform to find data, analyze it, and, most of all, to turn numbers into charts and graphs, whether you're comparing the output of oranges between Russia and India or creating something like the <a href="http://opendataforafrica.org/tags">gallery of interactive charts</a> African Development Bank Group created on the Knoema platform. Along with providing access to more than 500 public data sets and hundreds of ready-to-use dashboards on various topics created by its users, Knoema lets you intelligently search for data--in a single place, rather than hunting and pecking through a Google query, Eskin says. "Any company could use Knoema for most of their data needs--both accessing and visualization," Vlad Eskin wrote me in an email. "But Knoema is not a BI tool…The whole idea behind Knoema is to provide one platform for data access and all possible ways of mashing data across sources and push it for content creation and dissemination/sharing." I can't recommend any of these companies as a means or method on which to offer a core corporate application, not just yet anyway. They're all too early in their development for you to determine their survival prospects. Even TourWrist, the one company that's showing more signs of maturity and sophistication, isn't even two and half two years old. It has received angel funding but has yet to be backed--and therefore validated--by serious venture capital investment. More importantly, none of these three sport a business model that makes them much more than a "feature" that a large player like, say, an eBay or Amazon could develop or acquire. But that doesn't make them any less indicative of an era when visuals rather than the written word will rule the information economy. Patrick Houston is the co-founder of MediaArchiTechs. He is a former SVP for a new media startup, a GM at Yahoo, and editor-in-chief at CNET.com. He can be reached at patrick.houston@mediaarchitechs.com. 2012-04-25T08:30:00Z10 Must-See Tech Product Ideas From StartupsCan you spot tech's next big thing? Check out ten hot new ideas, fresh from the Demo show, that could impact the way you work and play.http://www.informationweek.com/news/232900858?cid=SBX_iwk_related_commentary_Mobility_developmentThis may look like just a pretty picture, but it's not. While what you see here is a still photo, in reality it's anything but. It actually represents a stunning new visual technology that allows anyone to capture and convey a 360-degree image that's part photo, part video, and part panorama. In fact, this new imaging technology from a San Francisco-based startup named <a href="http://tourwrist.com/" target="_blank">TourWrist</a> was so captivating that its founders walked away with a $1 million check as the People's Choice award winner at last week's <a href="http://www.demo.com/ehome/DEMO/home/?&" target="_blank">Demo Spring 2012</a> event in Santa Clara, Calif. Virtual panoramas, a la Google Street View, aren't new. But TourWrist is pushing the state of the art. Using planar acceleration controls, TourWrist lets you use an iPhone or an iPad to physically move up, down, left, and right as you hold the device in front of you. Even more impressive: It allows you to step into or away from any point in the picture. The company also used Demo to debut new features to move you through linked 360-degree panoramas. Imagine being able to move through each and every room of that 15-bedroom Malibu mansion you're contemplating. TourWrist was one of 81 demonstrations at Demo, a 22-year-old conference series that ranks among the granddaddies of tech launch events. While TourWrist might be obscure now, as a Demo winner it joins select company. Other Demo debut companies that went on to become major forces in the tech industry include Salesforce, Webex, and ETrade, to name a few. In our visual tour, you'll get a taste of some of the other products that went before a Demo crowd that included, most significantly, venture capitalists prospecting for their next big scores. When they're out looking for the next hot thing, you should be paying attention, too. Each presenting company received six precious minutes--just six--to prove its status as revolutionary, disruptive, world-changing, or any other Silicon Valley catchphrase used as a euphemism for "get rich quick." Of course, most of these startups aren't destined to become $100 billion IPOs. Absent from all-too-many of their elevator pitches was the foggiest outline of a sustainable way to make money. That means many won't be around long enough to be acquired, let alone strike it rich as publicly-traded companies. Nevertheless, as new and as bootstrapped as many of the Demo presenters were, you ignore them at your own peril. They represent trends, product categories, and technologies that could one day have a material impact on your business, whether they're focusing on mobile, enterprise, cloud, or the consumer. Several companies went after the problems related to the bring your own device trend. One company promised to make conference calling a high-fidelity experience (thank goodness). Another showed off a credit card that's actually a thin computer. A third promised the capability for you, your telecom guys, and your employees to configure and manage your office phone system from anywhere, anytime. And there were of course products that were just cool--like the Segway of skateboards. Take a look at the companies and products fighting to be tech's next big thing.In case the little light didn't tip you off, the credit card being held by Jeff Mullen, the founder of Pittsburgh, Pa.-based <a href="http://www.dynamicsinc.com/" target="_blank">Dynamics Inc.</a>, isn't just a credit card. It's a super-thin computer. The card itself can change information on the magnetic stripe to mimic other types of cards. Want to use reward points instead of credit? You can operate the card to do so. Dynamics showed off its E-Plate card at Demo two years ago and walked away with a $1 million check. Since then, however, it has raised tons of money and the backing of some of the nation's biggest card-issuing banks, such as Citi and UMB. It presented an update as a featured alumnus of the Demo event. Recommended Reading <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/enterprise_apps/232900704">Infor Socializes, Localizes Its Enterprise Apps</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/productivity_apps/232900681">Gmail Analytics: Gain Insights, Improve Your Productivity</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/cloud-computing/infrastructure/232900601">Amazon: Era Of Data Centers Ending</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/operating_systems/232900407">Windows 8 Coming In 4 Editions</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/productivity_apps/232900298">6 Ways To Run Windows On An iPad</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/galleries/hardware/reviews/232900241">10 Ways To Get More From Android Devices</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/galleries/smb/mobile/232700514">10 Essential Android Apps For SMBs</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/galleries/hardware/handheld/232602774">New iPad Teardown: Inside Apple's Tablet</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/galleries/hardware/handheld/232601935">iPad Apps: 10 Hidden Gems</a>Wait. A skateboard as technology? But that's not just a skateboard. It's a newly launched $1,000 special edition of the ZBoard. The ZBoard has weight sensors and a motor. Lean forward to zip ahead. Lean back to brake. But what's a ride without tunes? One ZBoard special edition also includes a Bluetooth-enabled player fueled by four speakers. Recommended Reading <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/enterprise_apps/232900704">Infor Socializes, Localizes Its Enterprise Apps</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/productivity_apps/232900681">Gmail Analytics: Gain Insights, Improve Your Productivity</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/cloud-computing/infrastructure/232900601">Amazon: Era Of Data Centers Ending</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/operating_systems/232900407">Windows 8 Coming In 4 Editions</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/productivity_apps/232900298">6 Ways To Run Windows On An iPad</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/galleries/hardware/reviews/232900241">10 Ways To Get More From Android Devices</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/galleries/smb/mobile/232700514">10 Essential Android Apps For SMBs</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/galleries/hardware/handheld/232602774">New iPad Teardown: Inside Apple's Tablet</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/galleries/hardware/handheld/232601935">iPad Apps: 10 Hidden Gems</a>Threats to your data continue to get bigger, badder, and bolder. That means the good guys need to get smarter, swifter, and more innovative. <a href="https://www.toopher.com/">Toopher</a> co-founder and CEO Josh Alexander thinks he can eliminate two-step authentication tokens as icons of safe computing. His company allows your phone and its GPS to authenticate you passively--without pulling it, or a token, out of your pocket. When you log into a Toopher-enabled website, Toopher prompts you to verify, then remembers the specified location. After that, it'll automatically verify you. Recommended Reading <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/enterprise_apps/232900704">Infor Socializes, Localizes Its Enterprise Apps</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/productivity_apps/232900681">Gmail Analytics: Gain Insights, Improve Your Productivity</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/cloud-computing/infrastructure/232900601">Amazon: Era Of Data Centers Ending</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/operating_systems/232900407">Windows 8 Coming In 4 Editions</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/productivity_apps/232900298">6 Ways To Run Windows On An iPad</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/galleries/hardware/reviews/232900241">10 Ways To Get More From Android Devices</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/galleries/smb/mobile/232700514">10 Essential Android Apps For SMBs</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/galleries/hardware/handheld/232602774">New iPad Teardown: Inside Apple's Tablet</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/galleries/hardware/handheld/232601935">iPad Apps: 10 Hidden Gems</a>Unless you're well-heeled enough for a state-of-the-art "telepresence" system (the term even sounds expensive), conference calls generally stink in terms of quality. But <a href="http://www.voxeet.com/" target="_blank">Voxeet</a> used Demo to debut a new high-definition, 3-D "natural conferencing" software suite that had ears literally perking up during the conference. If its demo was any indication, the sound wasn't just crystal clear. You didn't have people noise-cancelling each other, and you could hear someone speaking from your right or your left, depending on where you moved their avatars, giving a lifelike in-the-same-room presence to the callers. Recommended Reading <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/enterprise_apps/232900704">Infor Socializes, Localizes Its Enterprise Apps</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/productivity_apps/232900681">Gmail Analytics: Gain Insights, Improve Your Productivity</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/cloud-computing/infrastructure/232900601">Amazon: Era Of Data Centers Ending</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/operating_systems/232900407">Windows 8 Coming In 4 Editions</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/productivity_apps/232900298">6 Ways To Run Windows On An iPad</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/galleries/hardware/reviews/232900241">10 Ways To Get More From Android Devices</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/galleries/smb/mobile/232700514">10 Essential Android Apps For SMBs</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/galleries/hardware/handheld/232602774">New iPad Teardown: Inside Apple's Tablet</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/galleries/hardware/handheld/232601935">iPad Apps: 10 Hidden Gems</a>As good as most product shots have become, they still can't compare to walking around something, or turning it over again and again in your hands. But a Charlottesville, Va., startup called <a href="http://arqspin.com/" target="_blank">Arqball</a> claims to take product visualization to a new level, with a free app no less. Using an iPhone or iPad, you simply take a 360-degree image of a product as it turns, like the video camera pictured here. Arqball's app turns the image into a "spin," an image you can rotate and even annotate. Arqball's idea holds the potential to make ecommerce far more engaging and lifelike. Recommended Reading <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/enterprise_apps/232900704">Infor Socializes, Localizes Its Enterprise Apps</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/productivity_apps/232900681">Gmail Analytics: Gain Insights, Improve Your Productivity</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/cloud-computing/infrastructure/232900601">Amazon: Era Of Data Centers Ending</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/operating_systems/232900407">Windows 8 Coming In 4 Editions</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/productivity_apps/232900298">6 Ways To Run Windows On An iPad</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/galleries/hardware/reviews/232900241">10 Ways To Get More From Android Devices</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/galleries/smb/mobile/232700514">10 Essential Android Apps For SMBs</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/galleries/hardware/handheld/232602774">New iPad Teardown: Inside Apple's Tablet</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/galleries/hardware/handheld/232601935">iPad Apps: 10 Hidden Gems</a>Your telecom crew may love you for adopting <a href="http://www.ringcentral.com/" target="_blank">RingCentral</a>, especially now that setting up and managing the cloud-based business-class phone system is much easier. At Demo, the company introduced its "cloud touch" platform as the newest ease-of-use feature to its VOIP telephone service. Via an iPhone or iPad, the new feature allows anyone, even an employee, to set up, reconfigure, or otherwise manage office phones or connected devices. Recommended Reading <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/enterprise_apps/232900704">Infor Socializes, Localizes Its Enterprise Apps</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/productivity_apps/232900681">Gmail Analytics: Gain Insights, Improve Your Productivity</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/cloud-computing/infrastructure/232900601">Amazon: Era Of Data Centers Ending</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/operating_systems/232900407">Windows 8 Coming In 4 Editions</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/productivity_apps/232900298">6 Ways To Run Windows On An iPad</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/galleries/hardware/reviews/232900241">10 Ways To Get More From Android Devices</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/galleries/smb/mobile/232700514">10 Essential Android Apps For SMBs</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/galleries/hardware/handheld/232602774">New iPad Teardown: Inside Apple's Tablet</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/galleries/hardware/handheld/232601935">iPad Apps: 10 Hidden Gems</a>Nobody wants his or her personal trainer around all the time. But constant monitoring, as in 24-by-7, may be what it takes to be an elite athlete, or to improve your health and fitness. At Demo, a company called <a href="http://www.bodymedia.com/" target="_blank">BodyMedia</a> introduced a "pro" version of its monitoring system. When you're wearing an armband or patch, pictured here, BodyMedia's system tracks calories burned, activity, and sleep patterns. Once your data is loaded into BodyMedia's new ProConnect app, it's available to your trainer and coach anytime, anywhere. Recommended Reading <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/enterprise_apps/232900704">Infor Socializes, Localizes Its Enterprise Apps</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/productivity_apps/232900681">Gmail Analytics: Gain Insights, Improve Your Productivity</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/cloud-computing/infrastructure/232900601">Amazon: Era Of Data Centers Ending</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/operating_systems/232900407">Windows 8 Coming In 4 Editions</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/productivity_apps/232900298">6 Ways To Run Windows On An iPad</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/galleries/hardware/reviews/232900241">10 Ways To Get More From Android Devices</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/galleries/smb/mobile/232700514">10 Essential Android Apps For SMBs</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/galleries/hardware/handheld/232602774">New iPad Teardown: Inside Apple's Tablet</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/galleries/hardware/handheld/232601935">iPad Apps: 10 Hidden Gems</a>Any teacher will tell you that interactive white boards have big drawbacks. One inherent flaw harkens back to the white board's antiquated predecessor, the chalkboard: You have to be at the surface to use it. But electronics company Interphase used Demo to debut a device called <a href="http://www.penveu.com/" target="_blank">Penveu</a>, pictured here, that it says can turn any projector or large screen display into something that can be marked up--from as far as 40 feet away. Penveu accomplishes this using the same tracking technology used in smart bombs and cruise missiles. Recommended Reading <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/enterprise_apps/232900704">Infor Socializes, Localizes Its Enterprise Apps</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/productivity_apps/232900681">Gmail Analytics: Gain Insights, Improve Your Productivity</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/cloud-computing/infrastructure/232900601">Amazon: Era Of Data Centers Ending</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/operating_systems/232900407">Windows 8 Coming In 4 Editions</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/productivity_apps/232900298">6 Ways To Run Windows On An iPad</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/galleries/hardware/reviews/232900241">10 Ways To Get More From Android Devices</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/galleries/smb/mobile/232700514">10 Essential Android Apps For SMBs</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/galleries/hardware/handheld/232602774">New iPad Teardown: Inside Apple's Tablet</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/galleries/hardware/handheld/232601935">iPad Apps: 10 Hidden Gems</a>It's good to know Google doesn't a have a lock on search. A vertically targeted search engine was introduced at Demo that gets its fuel from deep personalization. The job search tool called ApplyApp.ly relies on semantic technology to use your LinkedIn profile information, your resume, and your Myers-Briggs personality type to rate and rank the relevance of a particular position. ApplyApp.ly stood out, too, for the growing trend toward application and service verticalization that will keep competition alive against those companies that deign to do no evil but still rule the world. Recommended Reading <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/enterprise_apps/232900704">Infor Socializes, Localizes Its Enterprise Apps</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/productivity_apps/232900681">Gmail Analytics: Gain Insights, Improve Your Productivity</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/cloud-computing/infrastructure/232900601">Amazon: Era Of Data Centers Ending</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/operating_systems/232900407">Windows 8 Coming In 4 Editions</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/productivity_apps/232900298">6 Ways To Run Windows On An iPad</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/galleries/hardware/reviews/232900241">10 Ways To Get More From Android Devices</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/galleries/smb/mobile/232700514">10 Essential Android Apps For SMBs</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/galleries/hardware/handheld/232602774">New iPad Teardown: Inside Apple's Tablet</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/galleries/hardware/handheld/232601935">iPad Apps: 10 Hidden Gems</a>Demo conferences are punctuated with "Sage Panels," consisting of venture capitalists providing their assessments of the demos they've seen. One word, like "underwhelming," from a VC in a public forum like Demo can melt a startup's prospects. Recommended Reading <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/enterprise_apps/232900704">Infor Socializes, Localizes Its Enterprise Apps</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/productivity_apps/232900681">Gmail Analytics: Gain Insights, Improve Your Productivity</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/cloud-computing/infrastructure/232900601">Amazon: Era Of Data Centers Ending</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/operating_systems/232900407">Windows 8 Coming In 4 Editions</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/productivity_apps/232900298">6 Ways To Run Windows On An iPad</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/galleries/hardware/reviews/232900241">10 Ways To Get More From Android Devices</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/galleries/smb/mobile/232700514">10 Essential Android Apps For SMBs</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/galleries/hardware/handheld/232602774">New iPad Teardown: Inside Apple's Tablet</a> <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/galleries/hardware/handheld/232601935">iPad Apps: 10 Hidden Gems</a>2012-04-18T13:37:00ZWhat You Won't Learn From 12 Greatest EntrepreneursOur billionaire-obessed society loves to ballyhoo the (rarely) successful mega-startup and its leader. But most of us can't start with a blank slate at our companies.http://www.informationweek.com/news/232900520?cid=SBX_iwk_related_commentary_Mobility_developmentFortune magazine streamed into my iPad recently blaring this cover story: <a href=" http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2012/news/companies/1203/gallery.greatest-entrepreneurs.fortune/index.html">"The 12 Greatest Entrepreneurs of Our Time--And What You Can Learn from Them</a>." Fetching headline, for sure. But instructive for most of you? Not so much. The 12 guys--there are no women--in Fortune's self-proclaimed pantheon arguably belong there. But the problem with ballyhooing the (rarely) successful mega-startup and its leader as a beacon to the rest of us is this: A startup is a startup. It's a tabula rasa. An established company isn't. And if you're reading Fortune, or this column, you probably work for a company that's anything but a blank slate. It's already set in its ways. Much of what our success-obsessed, billionaire-worshipping culture elevates to us just doesn't apply. Consider: -- Steve Jobs, No 1. (Surprise!) He was undoubtedly brilliant. Under his reign Apple rose to become the stock market's most valued company. But the lesson Fortune attaches to him leaves me shaking my head. The story cites as Jobs' oft repeated diss of consumer research. But it's easy to write off focus groups when you have a derivative product line. The iPod, a handheld device, came to the market in 2002, six years before the iPod Touch, which preceded the first iPhone, which begat the iPad. Of course you don't need to convene small groups of potential users when you're already got reams of real market data. -- Bill Gates, No. 2. He played an essential role in the PC revolution and its profound echo effects. But Gates' big takeaway is this: Hire the smartest people you can trust. Then he names as examples Paul Allen, his co-founder, and present Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, the company's 30th employee and its first business manager. But as founder of a startup with a handful of employees, how hard was it for him to surround himself with brilliant and unquestionably loyal colleagues? How many of you have that prerogative? As much as you'd like you can't replace your nitwit of a boss. -- Narayana Murthy, No. 10. In creating Bangalore-based Infosys, he's credited with launching the era of outsourcing. (Displaced software engineers just love him for that.) His advice? Fortune quotes: "It's all about sacrifice today, hard work, lots of frustration, being away from your family, in the hope that someday you will get adequate returns for that." The hope? Someday? Adequate returns on neglecting your loved ones? Even worse, the words serve to support the main point: Coalesce around people with an "enduring value system?" If Murthy's Law is founded on everlasting principle then the fish stinking up the fridge after three days ought to be just fine, too. I don't want to squat all over this article. There are some broadly applicable insights from its profiles of FedEx founder Fred Smith (No. 3,) who says you need to rely on front-line managers. And there's wisdom from Starbucks founder Howard Schultz (No. 6), who upon his return instilled financial discipline upon the behemoth his startup had become, and from Southwest Airlines founder Herb Kelleher (No.9,) who insisted on putting customers first and making employees owners too. My rant has another purpose. It starts to establish the way I'm going to apply critical thinking to the Silicon Valley startup scene for InformationWeek.com. There are indeed things for you to learn, and most certainly relevant to what you do at a place that isn't a startup. There are relevant new products that need to be on your radar. There are budding new technologies that could affect your company, your market, and your operations. There may even be pioneering methodologies and operating processes sprouting from ventures unencumbered by legacy ways of work. That's the framework I'll take to the table as I attend the granddaddy of all startup launch events, Demo, this week. But I'd also like you to tell me. Join my feedback loop. Tell me what you want to know about startups that is relevant, useful, and prescriptive. Patrick Houston is the co-founder of MediaArchiTechs. He is a former SVP for a new media startup, a GM at Yahoo, and editor-in-chief at CNET.com. He can be reached at patrick.houston@mediaarchitechs.com See the future of business technology at <a href="http://www.interop.com/lasvegas/?_mc=CPQCNL07">Interop Las Vegas</a>, May 6-10. It's the best place to learn how cloud computing, mobile, video, virtualization, and other key technologies work together to drive business. Register today with priority code CPQCNL07 to get a free Expo Pass or to save 25% on Flex and Conference passes.</a>. 2012-04-17T08:35:00ZIT Should Prepare For Cloud Startup DownpourVenture capitalists are voting for cloud startups in staggering numbers. Start developing a rigorous process now for picking enterprise IT cloud tools and vendors.http://www.informationweek.com/news/232900366?cid=SBX_iwk_related_commentary_Mobility_developmentIf your head is already spinning from the growing number of "aaSes" out there, brace yourself. It's only going to get worse. Venture capitalists are pouring money into cloud-based startups, portending an onslaught of new service options coming to you soon. If I were you, I'd start developing a rigorous process for picking enterprise IT cloud tools and vendors now--especially to gird yourself against rogue line-of-business managers tempted to leave the IT queue in order to subscribe to services on their own. I offer this advice having just sat through a breakfast panel hosted by four self-admitted cloud evangelists from blue-chip Silicon Valley venture firms, as part of my new gig with InformationWeek.com, covering among other things the startup scene. Although insiders know these venture capital companies as Pillsbury Winthrop, NEA, Scale, and Bessemer, you'll know them by their hits, namely Box.net, Pinterest, 3Com, TiVO, and more. First, let me share some of the numbers we were fed--stats that say as much as anything about what's ahead: VCs devoted $6.9 billion in 2011 to "Internet-specific" startups, a proxy term for "cloud" because that's what most of them are doing, according to Steve Bengston, a director of a startups practice at PricewaterhouseCoopers. That's up 68% from last year. In Q4 alone, cloud-related investments of $1.8 billion outdistanced the dollars that went into biotech ($1.3 billion), cleantech ($883 million,) and medical devices ($498 million.) It's not just the amount. It's the number of deals, too. During all of 2011, VCs funded 1,004 software startups that were mostly in the cloud--or more than double the 446 biotech companies that received dough. Not all those companies will survive to deliver a product one day, of course. A large number of startups makes the chance of success more likely. Remember, VCs have a clear imperative to find the money. But it's only partly about the big money, such as Facebook's anticipated $100-billion-plus IPO valuation. You can also learn from where they're scouting, digging into real work, and making their claims, actions that all offer directional guidance for what IT leaders can expect in two to seven years. Osman Ahmed of Scale Venture Partners, which invests in mid-to-late-stage startups, said his firm sees a lot of action in three areas: big-data analytics, telephony, and data-storage services. You could also get an instructive glimpse into the future by the names of the companies rolling off the VCs' tongues. Here are three that piqued my interest for enterprise IT use: -- <a href="http://www.cloudflare.com">CloudFlare</a>, a cloud-based service that protects and accelerates any website. Once you sign up to its network, your Web traffic is optimized for speed and your site shielded from threats, bandwidth-hogging bots, and crawlers. -- <a href="http://www.apperian.com">Apperian</a>, which helps companies manage and secure mobile apps across platforms. This startup plays to the Bring-Your-Own-Device (BYOD) revolution befuddling so many IT groups as they struggle to address the issues of personal smartphones used for business purposes. -- <a href="http://www.stormpath.com">Stormpath</a>, a developers' tool, helps companies manage user access, authentication, and identity across mobile and enterprise apps in the cloud and behind a firewall. I'll be keeping a critical eye trained on these and other potentially promising companies, trends, and technologies emerging from the vibrant Silicon Valley startup scene. And when I say critical, I mean critical. VCs are like baseball players. They might be pros, but even the Hall of Famers fail at the plate more often than they succeed. They whiff, too. Plus, not everything they tout makes for something you need to note. In fact, please tell me what you'd like me to cover. What do you, as an IT leader, probably at an established company, want to know about startups? What do you want to learn about them? From them? For now, though, start getting ready, because the numbers show that the VCs promise to make the skies much cloudier in the years ahead. Patrick Houston is the co-founder of MediaArchiTechs. He is a former SVP for a new media startup, a GM at Yahoo, and editor-in-chief at CNET.com. He can be reached at patrick.houston@mediaarchitechs.com The pay-as-you go nature of the cloud makes ROI calculation seem easy. It’s not. Also in the new, all-digital <a href="http://www.informationweek.com/gogreen/031412s/?k=axxe&cid=article_axxt_os">Cloud Calculations</a> InformationWeek supplement: Why infrastructure-as-a-service is a bad deal. (Free registration required.)