Planet PDX

On standards and discrimination

2008-07-04T11:39:02+00:00

The Business Software Alliance has got itself in something of a flap over the European Commission’s European Interoperability Framework for pan-European eGovernment Services and its stance on patents in standards, according to this report in The Register.

The report quotes BSA’s European software policy director Benoit Müller as saying:

“Our concern is that they [IDABC] will still insist on standards that have no intellectual property [IP] rights and they will not revise the definition of an open standard as contained in EIF version one. They define open standards inconsistent with the common understanding of the term in what we believe is a dogmatic approach. It fails to recognise that almost all standards that help interoperability and that governments should indeed use to promote the very objectives of the EIF do have intellectual property.”

The BSA’s position is pretty much identical to that adopted by the Association for Competitive Technology, which you can read more about here.

However, according to the Register report, both the BSA and ACT are misinterpreting the forthcoming draft EIF. It quotes Karel De Vriendt at the IDABC as saying:

“We stressed the need for the evaluation of standards along many dimensions… one of them being openness and the possibility to implement the standard in open source software (which is of course only important if you value open source software). Standards with IP rights regimes that prohibit the implementation of these standards in open source software should, if more open alternative standards exist, not be used as the basis to achieve interoperability if your organisation wants to be able to benefit from open source software.”

In other words, if you value open source software (which the EC does, as it is seen as a means by which the competitiveness of the European Union’s ICT industry can be improved) it would be best not to adopt standards that discriminate against open source software. Sounds pretty reasonable to me.

But then it depends on your definition of discrimination, I suppose. As Müller told The Register:

“When open source is the best solution, the most cost effective and most suited solution to a given government needs then that is of course what a government should procure. But we’re against preference policies. Some attention should be paid to open source as long as it does not lead to discrimination.”

Slow news week? Not really

2008-07-03T23:21:39+00:00

Given the dearth of posts this week, you’d think nothing had happened in Portland, at all. Or that I simply wasn’t paying attention.

Luckily, neither is true.

As you’ve likely noticed, I’ve been heavy on the link round-ups, this week. And I’ve been holding back some of the major news.

Why? Well, I know folks are taking time off, enjoying the Portland weather, and *gasp* actually getting out from in front of their machines.

The stories will wait. And I want you to around to read them. I’m funny that way. So, they’ll be here next week, when you’re back at your machine and looking for the latest and greatest.

What kind of stories? Well I’m glad you asked.

Did you know that the inimitable Gary Vaynerchuk of Wine Library TV was in town, this week? That’s right. And he helped the Legion of Tech launch their first Legion of Talk. That’s news. And, hopefully, when I run the write-up next week, we’ll also have video. Because, honestly, you don’t really get the full effect of Gary unless you get the full effect of Gary.
And Portland Web Innovators held their fist Demolicious event, featuring five local developers and their current projects. Not only were all of the projects cool, there’s one in particular that I found so compelling that I thought it deserved a write-up of its own. Which one? You’ll just have to wait and see.
Silicon Florist acquired Portland Lunch 2.0, so all of the news and notes about Portland Lunch 2.0 will appear here, from now on. Including the write-up on the latest lunch at Wieden+Kennedy and the next lunch at Souk.
As always, there are a couple of top secret stories that may (or may not) break next week. That’s exciting, isn’t it?
Oh and that’s not all, my friends. I’m sure there’s some news that I haven’t even learned about yet. Like why were Gary V and Loic Le Meur both in Portland at the same time? Inquiring minds, inquiring minds.

So, take some time off. Relax. Celebrate your independence.

And may you and yours have a safe an happy Fourth of July.

I’m looking forward to posting more next week.

Aileen is Now Blogging

2008-07-03T20:53:03+00:00

My friend Aileen is now blogging. This is good because she is an interesting person. She recently created another human, my goddaughter, Kea.

Firefox gets record, but what about real prize?

2008-07-03T19:57:37+00:00

Score one for open source software in the history and record books. Mozilla announced its Firefox open source Web browser set a Guinness World Record for number of downloads in a day, notching more than eight million downloads in 24 hours June 17-18, 2008. The day also marked the release of Firefox 3, the latest version of the browser that has steadily built its user base up from a fraction of the browser market to a solid, near 20% share today.

There were a few hiccups during Firefox’s so-called Download Day, a PR stunt that could have easily been dubbed Delay Day by those undable to obtain the latest version. I think it’s interesting that even in this day and age, even when you are geared up for spikes and infrastructure is far more flexible and agile, there’s still downtime with the rush. Nevertheless, it successfully drew attention to Firefox and more importantly, the browser has been praised for its security and appeal to many users.

However, Mozilla has also been questioned for not focusing more on the enterprise opportunities for Firefox. Given its security, flexibility and customization advantages, I see Firefox as a perfect fit for enterprises, and I’m aware of several vendors and companies in tech and other industries that encourage or enforce use of Firefox. However, Mozilla seems content to allow consumer and home use to seep into the enterprise.

I believe it is wise for Mozilla to focus on user features and innovations, to look to advertising for its revenue and to refrain from enterprise sales departments and staff. However, the company should be doing all it can to provide the features and functionality that will ease Firefox use in the enteprise. This is a matter of both perception (’That browser isn’t made for use in our business, is it?) and reality (I can’t push proxy settings across numerous installs), but they are issues that can be addresssed by the involvement, speed and variety of open source software development.

Nvidia puts a scare into chip industry

2008-07-03T18:42:52+00:00

Nvidia shares are down more than 30 percent late this morning after the company warned quarterly sales and profit margins will miss expectations, and that the Silicon Valley company will take a charge of up to $200 million resulting from...

I Only Own One Pencil

2008-07-03T18:02:12+00:00

It might come as some surprise that someone married to Mr. Pencil only owns one pencil. I own only one pencil, a stumpy sub-compact mechanical number that I use for maths. I borrowed it from Mr. Pencil about eight months back and have adopted it as my own. Keeping track of a single pencil requires dedication.

The sociopath in my calculus class pointed out how efficient and wonderful this little pencil is, not one of those outsized, inferior pencils. He is also insane.

Recently I wore away the last of my little teal-blue pencil’s itty-bitty eraser and I decided I would get a grand new pencil, with an industrial-family-sized eraser and maybe even made out of metal. I went to the dreadful Office Depot on SE MLK and spent fifteen minutes in the mechanical pencil department (and even briefly the drafting supplies department!) before choosing a single, sleek, post-modern, aerodynamic whopper of a new pencil.

I brought it back to the office, unwrapped it and then realized I didn’t know how insert get the lead sticks it came with. An unloaded mechanical pencil has not much worth. I unscrewed caps and chambers and frowned. My careful uncappings turned to careless force. I had to ask Grigsby to help. Like a patient father he examined it from all angles but finally we realized the pencil was broken. Broken before it ever served me. What a waste of time.

I bought a Pink Pearl eraser and kept my old pencil.

Every day we shovel fuel.

Bit Stories 2008-07-02: Recording Screwups, Moblin.org, Linux, MIDs, and NetMeeting

2008-07-03T16:28:41+00:00

Here’s this week’s show! Have a listen, and check out the download/subscribe links and detailed show notes below.

Click to play

This week’s show is only 30 minutes long and weighs about 28MB (it’s a 128kbps MP3). You can download the file directly, listen using the streaming player above, or (BEST OPTION!!1!) subscribe to the Bit Stories podcast feed in your favorite podcast aggregator (like iTunes). If you subscribe to the feed, you’ll get each show delivered automatically as it becomes available - probably once a week or so, with the occasional bonus video or audio segment thrown in for fun. Plus, we’ll love you forever if you subscribe!

Here are some free form notes from today’s show:

Yet Another Audio Setup

Embarrassing Confession: We recorded the last two shows using the built-in mic on my MacBook Pro, instead of the elaborate mixer/condenser mic that we have set up. Because I’m an idiot. The saving grace? It sounded pretty darn good!

Have developers let the Tablet PC community down?

Brian paved and reinstalled Windows XP on his Samsung Q1 UMPC

Why XP instead of Vista? Not quite enough horsepower.

Josh has done the same thing (gone back and forth between XP and Vista) on his Asus R2H UMPC

Speaking of mobile device operating systems… Moblin.org

What the heck IS Moblin? Is it an OS?

Moblin is a stack of tools to help create OSes and applications for Mobile Internet Devices. It’s sponsored by Intel, and hosted by Intel Software Network

Ubuntu Mobile Edition (UME) sneak peak is out there, if you have a Samsung Q1 Ultra

Brian feels that he won’t be able to use a Linux-based MID because of the lack of mature ink/handwriting input support

It’s really hard to do an ink interface well

Will Atom-based devices ever have the horsepower to do handwriting well? Is this a hardware or a software problem?

Do open source projects do better when there’s a common, widespread demand and need for the result (like a web browser)? Do enough people in the open source community need and/or want good ink and handwriting support to motivate them to write it? Would enough people use it and care about it to make it worth their time?

Since Mobile Internet Devices are all about the Internet, having a good browser is going to be essential.

Windows versus Linux on these small, pocketable internet devices.

In general, lack of UI “polish” in Linux applications is a deterrent for non-geeks to adopt it.

Brian’s “essential” applications on his Samsung Q1: Microsoft Office, Firefox, and Microsoft Money

Is Firefox the exception to the “Linux applications don’t have a good interface/user experience” stereotype?

How easy is it going to be to “install any app you want” on the upcoming Linux MIDs?

The challenges of adapting applications to devices on smaller screen.

UMPCScrollBar - a great little app that lets you scroll windows around the smaller UMPC screen, so you can get to the “Install” and “OK” buttons that get pushed off the bottom of the screen.

Intel Software Network’s mobility community makes tons of resources, tools, and smart people available for people writing applications for these devices. Take advantage of us!

Without great software, Intel products are just a bunch of really tiny hot plates.

Have we discovered the REAL reason Intel has chosen not to deploy Windows Vista? Is it because NetMeeting is no longer there? Microsoft stopped distributing NetMeeting in 1998 - TEN YEARS AGO. But Intel lives and breathes NetMeeting - old habits die hard. (Update after the show: according to Wikipedia, Microsoft released a hotfix that allows you to download and install NetMeeting on Vista. Guess we were wrong! )

Macs do Screen Sharing, based on VNC, but there’s NO way on a Mac to participate in a NetMeeting call, because it’s a closed, proprietary Microsoft protocol.

Google Docs is GREAT for live collaboration.

PowerPoint is a great presentation tool, but it is NOT a collaboration tool! It gets abused WAY too often. PowerPoint abuse starts early - Brian’s 7th grade son is already doing it!

New recording time - Wednesday morning instead of Friday afternoon. Hope this gets the show out faster, and Josh and Brian perkier.

Josh’s morning voice - he’s not a morning person. Brian gets up at 5:30 AM.

Stuff we didn’t get to this week: Brian dips his toes into the world of Twitter and FriendFeed, and next week is iPhone 3G day! Come stand in line with us!

The show is picking up steam - we’re hitting our stride, and cranking them out. Many, many thanks to our listeners - we love you guys! We love connecting with people through the show, and getting to know who’s listening. But the only way we can do that is if you talk to us, so leave a comment, email us, or find some other way to say “hi”, and let us know what you think of the show!

How Much Are You Willing To Pay for SMS?

2008-07-03T15:23:08+00:00

The cost of sending and receiving SMS, also called text messages, is getting obsurd. As Marguerite Reardon of Cnet points out: since 2005, the cost of SMS has doubled on all four major US telcos from 10 cents to 20 cents per message.

Why are the mobile phone service providers charging this much to send 160 characters of information? Simple answer - because people are paying it. So before you go griping about the big corporations and their practices, complain to your telco and refuse to send SMS messages. This will be the only way we can get through to the Big 4 (Sprint, Verizon Wireless, T-Mobile, and AT&T).

Sure text messaging is convenient and very popular in some circles (people under 25), but what is it going for us to say “enough is enough”. Rather than use SMS, I suggest you look at mobile IM options.

Post from: Techcraver.com | Craving tech, craving life!

The Colors Of Corrosion: Rusty Palettes

2008-07-03T14:52:07+00:00

SplashCast Featured in PROMO Magazine

2008-07-03T14:04:57+00:00

SplashCast is featured in the cover story of this month’s Promo Magazine. Promo is one of the major marketing print publications.

The article is about how big money is starting flow from big brands to hip hop & urban artists - once largely ignored by mainstream brands. SplashCast is the focus of the last 3rd of article. Nice coverage, even if not completely accurate.

Here is the section on SplashCast:

VARIABLE VIRAL VIDEO

The viral side of music videos just got a bit more so with the advent of SplashCast, a social network gaining traction among the major labels.

SplashCast provides a movable window of a performer’s video with a template to enable messaging. Users can transfer their favorites to a MySpace page and share them. They can post videos, pictures or comments and chat with other users.

The service will soon allow insertion of its advertising into the video streams, thanks to HotSpot technology.

In a nod to the popularity of urban music, SplashCast is setting up a site for an established rap star it declined to identify, and expects he’ll be one among many.

“To date we’ve worked with labels,” says SplashCast CEO Michael Berkley. “Now we’re working with artists themselves, particularly in the urban category.”

The urban music channels created by SplashCast get the most viral distribution. The typical user is a tech-savvy African American ranging in age from 14 to 19. Females are in the majority.

SplashCast already has distribution deals in place with Sony BMG, Universal, EMI, Geffen, Warner Bros., MTV, NPR and PBS.

“It’s all about connecting our conversation,” says David Bell, director of digital marketing for Sony BMG’s Zomba label. “It’s about creating new communities, creating communities of our own.”

Bell says songs usually are a bigger draw than artists. But Chris Brown’s is the most popular of the 40 SplashCast channels featured on Sony BMG’s site. Roughly 40,000 users added it to their MySpace or Facebook pages within a month of its posting. It eventually was embedded in more than 75,000 pages.

Visitors “gobble up immediately” any news about stars like Brown, Bell notes, adding that urban music is the subject of a “huge number” of blogs. He says Zomba hopes to build content sites in collaboration with brands.

SplashCast plans a reality series on its “mystery” hip-hopper’s site.

“Once it’s out there on tens or hundreds of thousands of MySpace pages, the fans will be able to influence the reality show,” Berkley says. “It’s enabling artists to create content in a very efficient, cost-effective manner so they can essentially have a videographer follow them around, create this in real time and edit it.”

NetworthIQ Tweets for 2008-07-02

2008-07-03T07:59:59+00:00

@jvbrummett Thanks for signing up and glad you enjoy it. Bummer to hear about the house value, that’s a big swing! #

Silicon Florist’s links arrangement for July 02

2008-07-03T07:01:54+00:00

I Might Leave Twitter for Identi.ca

Aaron Hockley writes “I’m ready to move to Identi.ca. The big thing missing for me is… you. A lot of the PDX scene has joined (and added me… if you haven’t, I’m aaron on Identi.ca) but it seems folks are still posting mainly on Twitter. Join me in making the move.” [Editor: And I’m over there, too, as turoczy.]

Identi.ca Reply Sniffer at Fast Wonder Blog

Dawn Foster writes “It looks like a few of us are starting to play with Identi.ca. It’s just like Twitter, but without the community and without any real tools to support it Anyway, there doesn’t seem to be a good way to track @replies. I’ve put together a quick Yahoo pipe that will catch at least some of your replies. This is highly experimental (pre-alpha stage maybe). Welcome to the Identi.ca Reply Sniffer Pipe.”

Why I’m leaving Forrester

Where will Charlene Li be during her last days with Forrester? Right here in Portland at the Internet Strategy Forum Summit. Charlene writes “My last day with Forrester will be July 18th, a day that I look forward to with anticipation for the adventures that lay ahead, but also with sadness for the colleagues that I’ll leave behind. I’ll leave my good-byes until then, but please know that I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the conversation that we’ve had on this blog over the past almost-four years.”

View all my bookmarks on Ma.gnolia

Galen on Imindi July 2008

2008-07-03T06:20:15+00:00

Imindi is a linguistic connectome of the human mind. Imindi's underlying database, the Mindex, has never existed in this form before. As we hint about in the tutorial, Imindi has just begun. The database you are helping to build will become a powerful force in the future. A force for learning and change.

Imindi already has a Like Minds recommendation engine where users can get connected dynamically without resorting to outside e-mail. And an "under the hood" semantic engine that pulls out known nouns and entities from your notes and resources, and automatically populates your Think Tank with those nodes for you to link up at your convenience in your network of thoughts (Journey).

We will be developing specific tools for various professions so that users can easily create and build an integrated think tank environment for their needs. For example, a teacher will be able to set up a group of Like Minds that include their students, with a central topic Journey and a linked essay or book, and resource material all attached to the framework of the lesson and goals. A researcher can make a hypothesis tree with her colleagues and attach all the relevant literature. Our goal is to make Imindi your best source for intellectual growth and enhanced memory.

What is it all about, you might ask? Where is it going? We don't know the future, but we are helping to build it. And one thing we are sure of is that we as individuals will once again take a central position in defining what is valuable to our lives. Search finds information, but only you can find meaning.

Imindi is a platform of platforms: Seamless thought management is the idea that you could eventually navigate 3-D textual and visual space that is also embedded with image, book and video data, all searchable and linked. Your Imindi Journeys provide the scaffold that holds all of your other web resources together. The links themselves between thoughts become important quantities in the Mindex, measured by popularity, but also novelty and quality, and future users will be able to highlight certain paths in the network according to their Journey filters. Physical resonance will be programmed into the linkages just like the synaptic networks in our brains. This will allow the network to dynamically shift its emphasis and attention according to need and interest. Perhaps more importantly, old links that are not used will not strengthen. But any link that exists could be the one you need, and we will help you find it. At many levels, the way we think will be incorporated into Imindi.

Imindi is both avatar and agent: The thought patterns in your Journeys will become a powerful search tool to find relevant information across all of the other platforms you use. Your Journey patterns will also provide a useful filter against many existing platforms like Delicious, Flikr, YouTube, Facebook, and others. You will be able to put two terms into Imindi Search and find the middle idea that most closely links them together. We will be continually working to integrate Imindi data with the rest of the web. If the internet is about hyperlinked documents, Imindi is the new evolution to hyperlinked thoughts.

Like others, we support freely available information as a force for good, both for individuals and for society as a whole. But the most valuable information is the kind we create ourselves, our thoughts. Please help us build Imindi.

Join my Imindi Inc think tank on Imindi

Yelp Continues to Rock

2008-07-03T05:29:39+00:00

Yelp, a site I have praised before, is continuing to grow and gain traction. Today, TechCrunch profiled them and spoke of their success and new-found hate sites. You see, business owners who have been given bad reviews on Yelp are trying to fight back. Sorry businesses, but if you want to fight back, respond to the criticism by fixing what was being complained about. Yelp has reached out to give business owners a way to reply to reviewers.

Yelp is one of the social media sites that defines what user generated content is all about. Real people talking frankly about businesses in a frank and open manner. If businesses can’t take the heat - perhaps they should just stick their head in the sand and ignore the feedback. However, the feedback is free and will allow them to easily improve their business.

If you want to see my activity on yelp, check out my profile page.

Post from: Techcraver.com | Craving tech, craving life!

Google Goes Multi-Modal with Voice Powered Search on Mobiles

2008-07-03T05:13:39+00:00

A friend of mine, Surj Patel, told a while back me he thinks the next big thing in mobile application interfaces will be multi-modal input. That is, we have buttons that allow us to interact with the phone and the fantastic iPhone allows us to use touch. For more of my perspective on touch interfaces, check out a previous post of mine on GigaOm.

Multi-modal interfaces are those that allow us to use multiple mediums to utilize the mobile handset. That is, being able to use touch and voice simulatiously. Google Maps for Mobile just announced anew way of using Google Maps. When conducting a search on the BlackBerry Pearl’s GMM application, you can speak in your search query. Imagine how much time and frustration this will save when trying to interact with Google Maps for Mobile.

Think of how revolutionary this is. Touch interfaces is changing the way we use and look at our mobile handsets, and being able to combine this with voice or other input methods is monumental. As another example, Nokia phones (and some others) feature a hardware accelerometer and some forward-thinking applications are utilizing the accelerometer to do many common functions. For example, if your phone is sitting on a table and it rings, imagine being able to simply turn it over if you want to dismiss the call, rather than having to push a button.

I think Surj is right about multi-modal interfaces.

Post from: Techcraver.com | Craving tech, craving life!

I Might Leave Twitter for Identi.ca

2008-07-03T04:08:03+00:00

This morning I heard about Identi.ca and decided to check it out. It’s a microblogging service that’s obviously been inspired by Twitter. But… and this is a big but… it’s open source and distributed.

The website itself is a little rough around the edges but is quite functional. I’ve been using the service for less than 12 hours and I’m ready to dump Twitter if a lot of my network does the same. I’ve been following my Identi.ca stream using XMPP through Pidgin or the Google Talk client on my Blackberry and the service has been rock solid.

If you check out the FAQ, you’ll find several “coming soon” features, which will make things even nicer.

I’m ready to move to Identi.ca. The big thing missing for me is… you. A lot of the PDX scene has joined (and added me… if you haven’t, I’m aaron on Identi.ca) but it seems folks are still posting mainly on Twitter. Join me in making the move.

Tagged as: identica, identi.ca, twitter, microblogging

A manifesto for the next industrial revolution written by Umair Haque

2008-07-03T03:57:36+00:00

A Manifesto for the Next Industrial Revolution

Posted by Umair Haque on June 17, 2008 5:47 PM

http://discussionleader.hbsp.com/haque/2008/04/an_open_challenge_to_silicon_v.html

This is one of my favorite times of the year – because the Supernova conference is on. There are few conferences that combine so much big-picture insight, tons of fresh ideas, and real-world problem solving. It was awesome to be invited to speak there again this year (here's a video of my session from last year).

Unfortunately, because my mom is ill, I couldn’t make it (I'm really sorry, Kevin). That sucks massively – because I’ve been looking forward to it all year.

So here’s a short summary of the talk I was going to give instead. To get the most out of it, I suggest reading my guest post at Leading Green on new DNA first.

***

21st century capitalism needs a revolution. How does growth happen – from a strategic point of view? The great Joseph Schumpeter argued that growth happens through a process of creative destruction. There’s a simpler word for that: turbulence.

I think there’s a problem with this thesis. In an interconnected world, there are more and more players creating and destroying – as a simple example, the pool of workers in export-oriented industries has tripled, from 300 million to about 900, over the last 20 years. And so, today, turbulence is intensifying.

Creative destruction has two sides – the costs of destruction as well as the benefits of creation. And as creative destruction intensifies, the costs of this great tradeoff are going to sharpen. The price of growth, it seems, is a world that’s always riskier, more uncertain, and more brutal at the margin.

I think that accepting this tradeoff, perhaps, is the single most toxic orthodoxy that holds boardrooms back today. Why? The problem is that value creation isn’t just about productivity gains: it’s also about human welfare.

Consider this. When the last bubble was in internet technology, welfare was minimally affected – jobs were lost. When it shifted to housing and credit, welfare was affected more – houses and saving were lost.

Today, it’s shifting in large part to energy and food. What happens when hypercapitalism causes a food bubble? What happens when the masters of the universe in Greenwich bid up the price of food for India, China, and Africa's huddled masses?

Here’s the answer: marginal starvation. Lives are lost.

That's the very real toll that creative destruction extracts. It's the price that a better food industry tomorrow demands of us today.

If that’s 21st century capitalism – maybe it’s time for a revolution. One where the price of a dynamic economy isn't relentless damage to everything and everyone else.

The invisible hand is crippled. What’s going on here? Wasn’t the invisible hand supposed to raise everyone into prosperity and well-being?

Yes – but it’s not. The world is getting phenomenally richer – but the costs of that wealth seem to be endemic poverty for vast swathes of the world’s population, the poisoning of the water we drink, the pollution of the air we breathe, and the fraying of the social and cultural fabric that binds us together.

We’re richer, but that wealth doesn’t reflect durable, authentic economic value – which is hitting fast diminishing returns. The growth that we’re pursuing is neither sustainable – nor is it, in many ways, real growth at all. Boardrooms from finance to autos to energy to pharma to fashion have learned that the hard way.

Growth is in the DNA. So how do we begin rethinking economic growth? With the understanding that technology alone isn’t enough – and in fact, it’s not the harder part of sustainable growth.

Even if we invent a magic energy or food source tomorrow, it does the world little good if it’s in the hands of a Bill Gates 2.0 – the amount of new value that’s created is minimized. Conversely, it also does us little good if it’s in the hands of a Ford 2.0, who’ll just push-market next-generation gas guzzlers that put us squarely back into an energy trap.

The real problem is that the industrial economy is riddled with incentives to rip your head off, sell you lemons, maximize so-called “profit” at all costs, and exert power against you – not for you. That’s why it seems that pain, suffering, and value destruction are deeply embedded in the very DNA of our rusting, industrial-era economic system itself.

And that means that though technology is necessary, it’s not sufficient. What’s harder – and what truly unlocks new value – is new DNA. The fundamental question new DNA must answer is this: how do we organize and manage resources so they’re not depleted, crushed, strip-mined, and slashed-and-burned?

It is players who can answer that question – players who can renew yesterday’s rusting DNA – who will be able redraw the boundaries of value creation in the 21st century.

Organize something. Why does Google insist that it’s goal is to “organize the world’s information”? Because it’s figured out one of the deepest secrets hidden at the heart of 21st century economics: markets, networks, and communities can organize economic activities radically more efficiently than firms.

How do we begin reorganizing the industrial economy? By using markets, networks, and communities to alter the way resources are managed: to weave a fabric of incentives for sustainable growth and authentic value creation into the economy - a new economic fabric that’s meaningful to people.

Google utilized a market - AdWords - to utterly eviscerate a stale, broken media value chain. Here's a more visceral example. Muhammad Yunus revolutionized finance - not by collecting more money to lend, but by using communities to fundamentally alter the value equation of lending to the poor. The result was industry transformation.

See the similarity? Two vastly different industries - finance and media - were both revolutionized by new DNA. It was new ways to organize and manage that exploded the boundaries of value creation.

The revolution needs revolutionaries. Today’s investors, boardrooms and entrepreneurs are looking for value in all the wrong places. Facebook's game of musical chairs won't solve big economic problems - and neither will making token investments in greentech.

Where is the next industrial revolution crying out for revolutionaries? Simple: in industries dominated by clear, durable, structural barriers to efficiency and productivity.

The next industrial revolution begins here. What happens when we think of using new DNA to reorganize structurally inefficient industries? A blueprint for the next industrial revolution emerges. Here’s what it looks like.

Organize the world's hunger.
Organize the world’s energy.
Organize the world’s thirst.
Organize the world's health.
Organize the world's freedom.
Organize the world's finance.
Organize the world's education.

That's not an exhaustive list - it's just a beginning. In fact, let's open source it: please add to it ("organize the world's xyz"), and we'll keep an index here or elsewhere.

What's important is the logic behind the list. Let's make that as razor-sharp as possible.

Organize: to transform DNA, not lower-value technology. The world's: to have a global impact; to be able to scale to global levels. Hunger, health: some measure of economic well-being: to radically change the world for the better.

If you're a startup, and your elevator pitch isn’t shaped by this blueprint; if you're an investor, and your portfolio isn't full of companies like this; if you’re a corporate boardroom, and you're not refocusing and restructuring to meet these new challenges – here’s the bottom line: the next industrial revolution has your name written all over it.

***

Regular readers might have noticed that this talk is also a follow-up to my Open Challenge to Silicon Valley post. Fire away in the comments and let's discuss one or both

Demolicious!

2008-07-03T03:23:24+00:00

The Portland Web Innovators meeting this month is devoted to 5 demos aka Demolicious.

Metroseeq (Kevin Chen)

This grew out of a free food association for college students. Metroseeq is a way to search for local discounts and is tied into Google maps, so you can get very local, targeted information based on a specific area, intersection, or address. You can search for coffee near an address and see whether or not they have a current discount available. If you know about a deal that isn’t already entered, you can share that promotion with other users. It also has a “Wheel of Meals” - like the wheel of fortune that you can spin during those indecisive moments when you can’t decide what to eat.

XFN Spider aka Do-it-yourself Friendfeed (Don Park)

You need a better way to find your friends on various networks. You can manage your own friend lists with rel=”contact” in a regular html page, and you can also use rel=”me” to connect pages that describe you. XFN Spider can look at those me links, spider to the friends listed on those pages, create an OPML file and get all of this information in an rss reader. The spider is pretty cool, and I’m going to have to take a closer look at this. It also reminded me to finish adding my rel=”me” tags; I added a couple a while ago, but was distracted by something shiny and never finished adding them.

Interface Content Management Framework (Matt King)

It’s a CMS that builds CMSs, so it’s really a CMS framework. Create pages and templates from an admin interface, easily rearrange them, and do basic maintenance. Then you can add models that create dynamic content and build any kind of content that you want tailored to your site through a fairly simple interface that specifies fields for the pages. These models are used to add individual content into those fields for the pages. It’s a pretty slick DIY, highly customizable CMS. It will be available soon from Instrument, but hasn’t been released yet.

GoLife Mobile (Mounir Shita)

GoLife Mobile has an open platform for mobile applications. It’s an object-oriented development framework with a revenue share built in to give developers a way to monetize their applications. It has personalization technology and has semantic web capabilities.

Green Renter (Lev Tsypin)

Green Renter provides an easy way for people to find green buildings to rent. The goal is to be the resource for sustainable buildings starting in Portland, but expanding out to other areas. Owners can list their buildings by providing detailed information about what makes it a green building. Renters can then find sustainable buildings and view the detailed information about the building.

The evening festivities were also recorded, so I imagine that the video will be available from the PDX Web Innovators web site soon

A successful first Demolicious

2008-07-03T03:01:34+00:00

We were overwhelmed with the interest this event received. The docket filled up fast and it became obvious people wanted to show off what they're working on. Then as the crowd filtered into CubeSpace, we also learned there are a lot of people who want to see what others are up to. There will be another Demolicious soon.

Thanks to everyone who came and made the event a success. A special thanks to the five demoers and Strands, who sponsored us with refreshments.

Below are some quick links from tonight's Demolicious. To get a better feel for the event, check out Dawn Foster's write-up or Amber Case's review.

The demos:

Metroseeq, local business directory with coupon/savings. Check out the Wheel of Meals!

Don Park's XFN Spider, a way of seeing . Try your Twitter page and see where it takes you.

Matt King showed his Interface Content Management System. It's internal-only now, but he says they'll have a licensed and hosted version available soon.

GoLifeMobile is a mobile platform built to work on most phones. Currently their service works on any phone with Java (iPhone version coming soon). To check it out, type in your mobile number in the upper right of the GoLifeMobile homepage.

GreenRenter is a site for renters to find a green place to live or work. Keep an eye for the upcoming green score feature.

Identi.ca Reply Sniffer

2008-07-03T00:16:51+00:00

It looks like a few of us are starting to play with Identi.ca. It’s just like Twitter, but without the community and without any real tools to support it

Anyway, there doesn’t seem to be a good way to track @replies. I’ve put together a quick Yahoo pipe that will catch at least some of your replies. This is highly experimental (pre-alpha stage maybe). Welcome to the Identi.ca Reply Sniffer Pipe.

I’ll try to make some improvements to it over the next couple of days, but in the meantime, feel free to leave me suggestions in the comments on this post.

Usage:

Go to the Identi.ca Reply Sniffer Pipe
Enter your username and click “run pipe”
Grab the RSS feed output

Related Fast Wonder Blog posts:

Acquisition, Lunch 2.0v4 Recap, souk is Next

2008-07-02T23:57:47+00:00

Rick has kindly agreed to let me do Lunch 2.0 stuff here on the Florist. This makes a lot of sense, since this is the place to get the lowdown on technology companies and the tech scene here in Portland and nearby.

Oh, and the people who go to these lunches actually read and comment here, big plus.

So, my first post-acquisition content is the recap of Monday’s Lunch 2.0v4, held at Wieden+Kennedy, and a reminder that the next iteration is coming up soon at souk.

W+K Recap
This Lunch 2.0 was a little different than usual, which ruffled a few feathers, at least initially. Everyone has since hugged and sung Kumbaya.

Gaia Brown, the mastermind behind the W+K format, put together an ice-breaker activity that paired attendees with W+K people. From what I observed, people took the advance packets in varying degrees of seriousness, but the conversation flowed freely, regardless.

The lunch was held in the atrium at W+K in the Pearl, and I’d guess the attendance was probably more than 100, but less than 200. Yeah, I’m not a very good estimator. The raffle of swag went over well; gift baskets from several W+K clients were given away, and the final prize was several tickets to Inverge.

After chatting as pairs for a bit and listening to the raffle, people got up and milled around and talked, others played Rockband.

Next up, souk
As Rick previously mentioned, the next Lunch 2.0 will be held at souk in Old Town on July 16, so pretty soon. RVSP on Upcoming if you plan to make it, and yes, we’re returning to the old format, with no work and no packets, just free grub and good company.

Old Town has been very good to Lunch 2.0, thanks to eROI and Vidoop and now souk. I guess this begs the question, are you a real company if you’re in Old Town and haven’t hosted a Lunch 2.0?

Your thoughts?
After four Lunch 2.0s here in Portland, I’m pretty happy with the progress. The event is dominated by Tweeters, which (sadly) is the primary means of promotion, yet another reason why I wanted to move here to the Florist.

So, fellow Florists, what do you think of Lunch 2.0 so far? Sound off in comments and stay tuned for more Lunch 2.0 action here on the Florist.

Congress weighs in on Digimarc sale

2008-07-02T22:31:34+00:00

Read the whole letter hereThough Digimarc has agreed to sell the bulk of its business to a Connecticut company, L-1 Identity Solutions, rival bidder Safran SA could still return with a better offer. Today, members of Congress sent a letter...

MetroFi, up for auction on eBay

2008-07-02T18:10:23+00:00

Volunteers with the Personal Telco Project note that MetroFi turned off Portland's free Wi-Fi network yesterday, a day later than scheduled. And PTP's Tom Higgins points out that some of MetroFi's gear is now up on eBay. Get it while...

Salary Survey

2008-07-02T17:14:05+00:00

Interesting to see the AIGA’s Design Salary Survey results (PDF).

The salary calculator is an excellent resource for finding average salaries, by position, in the area. These no-nonsense numbers are so valuable for a small studio such as ours to use as a gauge for setting goals for both ourselves and future hires. Not surprisingly, Portland salaries appear quite a bit lower than other metro regions for similar jobs. For example, the Portland median salary for partners in a design firm is $60,000 while the national median is $95,000 - Portland is second to the very bottom of 25 metro areas reporting, above only Detroit. With the rise of the creative class here in Portland, how long will this trend continue? Are we too over-saturated as a city?

Looking at industry averages, though, our profession is steadily growing in worth. Cautionary signs exist - Employed designers reported high business activity during 2007, yet this did not translate into higher compensation as the budget for design projects were consistently characterized as extremely tight. Even with these signs, the AIGA remains confident in the important roles designers and design thinking play in creating value for both the corporate and civic sectors. Hence, [they] believe that the demand and compensation for design services will rise as the economy grows.

Salary is but one piece of the pie when it comes to design as a vocation; It is also worth noting that, as the essays in this publication articulate from a range of perspectives, compensation should be only one criterion in a young designer’s consideration of employment. We were just chatting here in the studio the other day about how lucky we are to be in the place we are, doing what we love. Often, when running off to photograph a client’s cafe or spending the day creating lovely mockups, we just don’t feel like we are actually working at all. And this benefit is priceless.

Terra-WebCam

2008-07-02T16:59:14+00:00

From the digital art collective Pleix.

The Colorful Art of Paper Sculpture

2008-07-02T16:26:43+00:00

451 CAOS Links - 2008.07.01

2008-07-02T07:59:02+00:00

Progress acquires IONA. Red Hat announces quarterly earnings. Optaros raises new round of funding. (and more)

Progress Software Corporation to Acquire IONA Technologies, Progess Software / IONA Technologies (Press Release)

Red Hat Reports First Quarter Results, Red Hat (Press Release)

Optaros Closes $12 Million in Series C Financing Co-Led by .406 Ventures & Globespan Capital Partners, Optaros (Press Release)

Sourcefire, Inc. Responds to Barracuda Networks Letter, Sourcefire (Press Release)

Linux Phone Standards (LiPS) Forum Joins Forces with LiMo, LiPS Forum / LiMo Foundation (Press Release)

Microsoft Takes Additional Steps in Implementing Interoperability Principles, Microsoft (Press Release)

Sun Microsystems Releases New GlassFish and MySQL Offering To Provide Customers With Unlimited Deployments of Enterprise Class Application Server and Database Software, Sun Microsystems (Press Release)

Oracle Updates Entire Family of Oracle Berkeley DB Embeddable Databases, Oracle (Press Release)

Openmoko Signs Five Distributors for Freerunner Open Source Mobile Phone, Openmoko (Press Release)

MuleSource Releases Mule Galaxy Enterprise, MuleSource (Press Release)

NETGEAR Launches Open Source Wireless-G Router Enabling Linux Developers and Enthusiasts to Create Firmware for Specialized Applications, NETGEAR (Press Release)

Zenoss Expands IT Management Solution for Managed Service Providers, Zenoss (Press Release)

Actuate First to Provide Support for Eclipse BIRT 2.3, Actuate (Press Release)

Latest Open-Xchange Public Beta Gives Customers a Free Preview to Business-Class Groupware, Open-Xchange (Press Release)

Open Source Community Wins at Ingres Code Sprint, Ingres (Press Release)

Coming Battle Over Open Source Phones, Forbes.com, Elizabeth Woyke (Article)

Linux experiences ‘prolific’ growth, says Linux Foundation’s Zemlin, SearchEnterpriseLinux.com, Pam Derringer (Article)

Nvidia Reiterates Position on Closed Source Driver, OSnews, Thom Holwerda (Article)

Red Hat CEO: Oracle/BEA Deal Is Helping Us, Internet News, Sean Michael Kerner (Article)

The State of Open Mobile OSes, TechCrunch, John Biggs (Blog)

When is an open-source project ready?, Practical Technology, Stephen j. Vaughan-Nichols (Blog)

Nokia’s Open Source Response: The Symbian Q&A, RedMonk - tecosystems, Stephen O’Grady (Blog)

Silicon Florist’s links arrangement for July 01

2008-07-02T07:01:46+00:00

Office Snapshots: Vidoop Office

From the Office Snapshots blog “Hidden behind an unassuming green door in Portland, Oregon is Vidoop’s office: a nice, open, well-lit office space. Awesomely, the office also contains two of my favorite workplace features: red brick walls and plenty of food. Now if only they had a dog, they’d deserve all five stars.”

No Beer and Blog this Friday in observance of Independence Day

Beer and Blog takes the 4th off. “Please take this 4th of July to spend with your friends and family. You can still enjoy beer and maybe even blog, but you should def watch something blow up. It’s the American way.”

Gary Vaynerchuk at Legion of Talk

Dawn Foster is a consummate note-taker and queen of the wrap-up. Here’s her take on Gary Vaynerchuk’s talk on July 1 at W+K, “Tonight is the first in what will hopefully be a series of guest speakers for Legion of Talk, a Legion of Tech. event. Gary V. is in town for his book tour at Powells, and we were lucky enough to snag him to talk to us about how he has used social media to grow his family wine business.”

View all my bookmarks on Ma.gnolia

Xandros buys Linspire in not so open source deal

2008-07-02T04:03:33+00:00

The Linux world got a little fired up this week following former Linspire CEO Kevin Carmony’s blog about Xandros buying Linspire. Carmony’s blog is tinged with his contempt for his old Linux company and particularly its president, Michael Robertson, who has his own history with tech companies. What seems ironic to me is that, according to Carmony, Linspire, which is based on open source, transparent, collaborative Linux software, is functioning in proprietary, closed-door, self-interest driven fashion. Not exactly the formula for success in open source if you ask me.

The Xandros-Linux deal, which has yet to be officially announced, is for real Xandros CEO Andy Typaldos told me today. However, he would not disclose any details. Typaldos had a story consistent with his company’s holistic stack approach I heard when Xandros bought Scalix for an undisclosed amount in July 2007. I am conflicted about the meaning of the Linspire deal. I think it could be another Linux distribution consolidation that ends up putting the best of two different versions together, but not the kind of thing that can drive traction beyond the attention and market share both held respectively before they merged (see Mandrake + Connectiva = Mandriva). However, as Xandros looks to improve its hand at the Linux and open source table by acquiring cards such as Scalix and Linspire, it may have a wild card in the form of netbooks, many of which run Xandros OS, email and other software.

Typaldos says the purchase of Linspire will give Xandros a software wharehouse for applications and content, a reference to Linspire’s CNR software, which is the main value for Xandros. The CNR application packaging and delivery technology stands out more than Linspire’s OS, Windows-like experience and ease of use. The company is also known, of course, for its former name, ‘Lindows,’ and its long court fight with Microsoft, which resulted in a name change and payment from Microsoft to ‘Linspire’ for $20m in 2004. As for New York-based Xandros, the company’s Linux distribution is limited by the fact that it is not actually available for free. While Xandros has some Linux desktop and server business (30% of revenue) in North America and Europe, the Linux company is looking to netbooks and other OEM business (40% of revenue), Scalix email business (30% of revenue) and management software made possible through its partnership with Microsoft that has yet to be released for the future. By the way, Typaldos says Xandros’ relationship with Microsoft is not related to the purchase of Linspire, which also had a Redmond partnership in place. He described Carmony’s reaction as part of a ‘family fight.’

It makes sense for Xandros to focus on newer areas of opportunity and leave the Linux server business to Red Hat and Novell and the Linux desktop quest to Ubuntu and others. However, it’s still hard to assess how significant the opportunity is when we don’t know how the business is working for Xandros. Typaldos referred to the millions of users swarming to netbooks and I have blogged quite a bit about how significant of an opportunity I truly believe netbooks and MIDs are for Linux. When I asked Typaldos whether Xandros is licensing its Linux OS to Asus for the EeePC and how Xandros makes its money from the 1-1.5 million netbooks he referred to, he responded by saying it’s ‘complicated.’

I won’t penalize him too much since Typaldos is straightforward about his view that giving the software away for free is no way to make money. Instead, Typaldos and Xandros are looking to piece together the open source alternative to Windows-plus-applications. I would be more skeptical if I wasn’t a believer in the opportunity from emerging netbooks, MIDs or whatever you call them. Even though its business model and operations may not be in keeping with the open source ideas that drive development of its products, the Xandros idea of a netbook stack, complete with a warehouse of applications that can grow to include more music, video and other content, holds a lot more promise than any Linux desktop dreams. Still, I don’t think companies like Xandros and Linspire do themselves favors when they act more as traditional, proprietary vendors than as supporters and providers of open source.