Microsoft iPod

A very nice example of what branding and design does to poor products!! or why a camel is a horse designed by a team - maybe a MS team? :-)

Architecture for Participation

A really interesting article in today's NYTimes about idea markets. But eve more or equally interesting is the quote of Tim O'Reilly, "... creativity is no longer about which companies have the most visionary executives, but who has the most compelling "architecture of participation." That is, which companies make it easy, interesting and rewarding for a wide range of contributors to offer ideas, solve problems and improve products?" This is exactly what we aim in the Laboranova EU project!! and by the way ... my thesis in UPC!

Robolobsters

I just couldn't resist to put this cute robolobsters in the blog :-) They are designed by DARPA to find sea mines ... But come on !!! They are soooo cute !!!!

Tim O'Reilly - Bill Gates - Mix 06

This is a conversation between Tim O'Reilly and Bill Gates in Mix06 in Las Vegas. Around Web 2.0, the past and the future. What is really interesting is to see how people as different as Tim O'Reilly and Bill Gates can put themselves in an informal conversation about what they think. This is a real contrast with what happens in other countries and other industries!

Is the Next Silicon Valley Taking Root in Bangalore?

I found this article of the New York Times specially enlightening. Just take a look at the confidence reflected in the last sentences: Sridhar Mitta, president of the Bangalore chapter of the Indus Entrepreneurs, said, "We are not going to be another Valley anytime soon," but he added, "The city can match up with Boston or Austin as a competitive place to start up innovative product companies." I hope one day my small country can exhibit such a belief in their present and their future regarding innovation and entrepreneurship!!

PS3 Life - The Social Aspect ... Again

Sony revealed some of the features of the upcoming Life-like online service for the PS3. It will include features like micro-payments, free games, content downloading, interaction between players, etc... Gamers could even put their own platforms and connect them to the PS3 Service. Also the door is open to things like community sharing or matchmaking. Web 2.0 is an acronym mostly related to social content and social usage, now we are contemplating how this social aspect goes beyond the PC and invades other devices - the PS3 in that case, but soon the mobile phone or Origami like products. But the web still lacks many of the basics for providing and enrich this social interaction. Elements like profiling, team formation, semantic meaning, etc... A tremendous opportunity!

Samsung Flash notebook

This is the first notebook (at least the first I know of) with flash memory instead of a normal disk drive. Only has 30GB, but for sure things will improve. The important things are what it doesn't have : no fans, no waiting and a much longer battery life. There is little doubt that this is the future. Ah - and really slim!!!

WiMax Scooter

This is a WiMax scooter from the Intel Developers Forum - That's cool man!!!

Perfect for Rome!!!

Intel presented a new chip and PC card for the Centrino architecture that is able to work with both Wifi and WiMax and will probably power the end of year laptops.

If anybody still thinks that there is life for 3G networks, better think twice about it!!

Frei Universitat Berlin- Library of Philology Department

This is the new Philology Library of the Frei Universitat of Berlin. Designed by Foster & Partners full of natural light !!! Just three words: I envy them!! grgrgr!!! What an incredible library !!!!!!

Is Social Networking Analysis Coming to Age in Companies?

A recent article in Business Week clearly portrays the increasing use of Social Network Analysis technologies in Companies and by Consultants. The article is full of examples of use: from IBM internally to Accenture in its consulting business or established companies like Capital One, etc… The accent is put in two main issues: 1) Does the Office Charts reflect reality ? . To what extend the organizational chart reflects reality and facilitates flows? 2) Collaboration. Collaboration is a major issue in companies that want to innovate. Realizing where silos are occurring or if the acquired teams are integrated or where collaboration happens and where not, goes down to questions like if the company will be able to bring new products or if investments are being productive or not. But this is probably the early beginning of the use and integration of tools that will change our conception of what a virtual environment is and how we work!