Gregarius » GigaOM » November 21, 2008

GigaOM (11 unread)

Supercomputing: It’s All About the Software

Posted: November 21st, 2008, 11:44pm CET by Stacey Higginbotham

At the SC 08 show that ends today in Austin, I was struck by how much the lines between supercomputing and corporate computing have blurred. The show even had a panel on high-performance computing and cloud computing! But after visiting with vendors of all types and sizes, I realized that since supercomputers can be built [...]
Time to Say Good-bye, and Thanks

Posted: November 21st, 2008, 10:25pm CET by Om Malik

[qi:076] Three years ago, when John Battelle and Chas Edwards met with me for a cup of coffee across the street from the old Business 2.0 offices in downtown San Francisco, their company, Federated Media, was still in its infancy, and our company, Giga Omni Media, was little more than a dream. John, a long-time friend and a peer from the tech media world, asked me if I would sign on with his studio of talent and let them represent my then one-man effort, GigaOM.com, commercially. Naturally, I said yes. In the time that passed we had our ups and downs, successes and embarrassments. But we progressed and prospered together. John now sits atop a gigantic company that is worth hundreds of millions of dollars and represents everyone from BoingBoing to mommy bloggers like Dooce. And Federated Media has become more than just a studio for technology bloggers, but a leader in the conversational marketing movement. Progress is often accompanied by a divergence of ideas and ambitions within partnerships. At Giga Omni Media, we have been developing a network that revolves around niche verticals. As our needs became more specialized, we sat down with the folks at Federated to try and figure out how we could continue to work together. But both sides quickly realized that instead it was time to wrap up what has been a successful business relationship. Now we have teamed up with the IDG Group to represent the sales of advertising on our properties -- seven today, and many more in the months to come. IDG has a growing blog ad network and I look forward to working with them. Of course, we will continue to supplement their work with our internal sales team, which has been instrumental in selling sponsorships for both our events and specialized weblogs. Sure we are parting company with our business partners, Federated Media, but we are not ending friendships that have spanned two bubbles, many magazines and countless memories. Thanks to John, Chas, Jason and everyone at Federated for being part of our dream, and for working tirelessly on our behalf.
Google: Algorithms Aren’t the Only Answer

Posted: November 21st, 2008, 6:04pm CET by Mathew Ingram

Google has finally pulled back the curtain on a new feature that until now has been in restricted beta: the addition of wiki-style functions in standard search results. Once logged into a Google account, this allows you to click a small up or down arrow to move a specific result, click and delete it from your search entirely, or click on a small comment bubble and leave your comments on that result. Google will remember those settings the next time you search for the same keywords, and has said it may even work for similar or related searches. In many ways, Google is taking the same principles that power a site like Digg and applying them to search.

Adding these kinds of features isn’t a universally popular move. When Wikia Search — Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales’s attempt to do the same thing to search, with editing of results and comments (or “annotations”) encouraged — launched earlier this year, there was plenty of criticism aimed not just at the execution and the lack of usable results, but at the very concept of wiki-style search. Many said that opening search results up in such a way would leave the system vulnerable to the inevitable SEO gaming and trick-playing that hampers many other “crowd-sourced” services such as Digg.

This is a little like complaining that the furnace heating your house is too hot, and that you’re afraid it might burn someone. In many ways, wiki-style search is just an extension of the way that Google has always worked: that is, by aggregating the choices of millions of users and then using the PageRank algorithm to produce something approaching the best result. Voting and commenting features simply give Google more pieces of data they can use to arrive at the best result). They will also provide a fairly rich trove of activity-based information that the search engine could use to improve its regular results — that is, the ones that users who aren’t logged in will see — or to tweak its overall search algorithms based on the behaviour of wiki-search users. Why did so many people move that result up? Why did they move another down? Why did some delete that result and not others?

Will these new wiki-style functions be subject to rampant gaming and manipulation? Of course they will — just like everything else that the search giant touches. When you wield as much power online as Google does, gaming and manipulation follow in your wake like pilot fish following a shark. Presumably, the company has taken that into account, and will use their resources to reduce gaming as much as possible. And meanwhile, they will use the results of all that clicking to teach their engine a thing or two about human search behavior.
LBS: A Dream Continually Deferred

Posted: November 21st, 2008, 6:01pm CET by Stacey Higginbotham

The Wall Street Journal this morning had a short article pointing out the somewhat obvious reasons why location-based services on cell phones are still not mainstream. It also helpfully pointed out that carriers were working on it. To recap, LBS services need three main things: a way to get location (which we have thanks to GPS chips and even the ability to triangulate using Wi-Fi networks), software that can make sense of geographic information and do something with it (which are out), and cooperation between handset makers and carriers to enable developers to access such services easily. It's the cooperation piece that fails, but the article points to several companies such as Nokia, uLocate's Where application and SkyHook Wireless that are attempting to bridge that gap by offering a platform that will sit between carriers and smaller developers. For example, uLocate has signed a deal with Sprint to act as the LBS platform for its WiMAX network. Smaller developers can sign on through Where and get access to WiMAX subscribers without worrying about working with Sprint or getting the location information form a provider. I suppose since we've waited this long for LBS, most of us can wait a little longer. image courtesy of Where
Yieldex Wins AWS Startup Challenge

Posted: November 21st, 2008, 5:52pm CET by Stacey Higginbotham

Yieldex, a startup that helps online publishers forecast ad inventory, has won the Amazon Web Services Startup Challenge, netting $100,000 in cash and services. Yieldex built its ad forecasting platform using the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud and the Amazon Simple Storage Service. It won $50,000 in AWS services as well as $50,000 in cash, and may even get an Amazon investment. In addition, it and six other finalists got to pitch their businesses to several VC firm including BlueRun Ventures, CMEA Ventures, Greylock Partners, Hummer Winblad Venture Partners and Madrona Venture Group, who help judge the contest. Last year's winner Ooyala managed to score $8.5 million in venture funding two months after it won. But those were different times.
In Search of a Research Assistant

Posted: November 21st, 2008, 4:54pm CET by Om Malik

[qi:015] If you follow me on Twitter, then you already know that I'm looking for a research assistant, a person whose primary job would be to help me dig up information for longer, in-depth blog posts. This position doesn't require a special degree or even a permanent address in San Francisco. What it does require is the ability to quickly ferret out information from various public sources. When I want to write about a certain trend, for example, I will want help tracking down all the companies in that sector, and to have a coherent dossier written on it that is both short and sweet. It would be a great learning opportunity for a student. My research assistant will of course be paid a nominal hourly fee for their efforts and should expect to work between 30-40 hours a month. Clearly the part-time money isn’t going to help your retire, but if you make yourself indispensable, it might eventually lead to a full-time job. So how do you apply? As I said in my tweet, I want you to find my personal email address (the GigaOM.com address doesn’t count.) Use it to send me an email outlining, in 250 words or less, why you are the best person for the job. To tilt the balance in your favor, include a list of five of my favorite brands. The final step would involve an assignment – if I like your work, you're hired.
Telcos Will See a More Activist Congress

Posted: November 21st, 2008, 4:34pm CET by Stacey Higginbotham

I'd better hightail it to Washington, because a reshuffling of Congressional Committee members is poised to herald more regulation for telecommunications firms on issues ranging from rural access to Net Neutrality. Yesterday Rep. Henry Waxman ascended to the head of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce -- which you may remember for its investigation into how web firms use consumer data -- and convened two hearings into online privacy. As the head of that committee, Waxman has considerable influence over its agenda. The Wall Street Journal speculates that Waxman will delegate many telecommunications issues to Rep. Ed Markey, of Massachusetts, who has already pushed for a Net Neutrality bill, and has a fondness for consumer issues. In the Upper House, Sen. Jay Rockefeller from West Virginia will likely be named the head of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Technology, and as the representative from a heavily rural state, is likely to push for access to broadband. He would replace Sen. Dan Inouye of Hawaii, who will chair the Appropriations Committee. Inouye had supported Net Neutrality rules, as well as the entrance of new bidders into the 700 MHz auction. Of course, if politicians are willing to float regulations on telecommunications, they're also likely to float more regulations in general -- some of which the pro-Net Neutrality crowd won't enjoy. Rockefeller wants to introduce legislation to make the FCC regulate television violence, while Markey has sent letters to the FCC expressing concern about the use of product placement in television shows.
Modern Networking Tools: Swapping Bits, Not Cards

Posted: November 21st, 2008, 6:00am CET by Celeste LeCompte

With the recession in full swing, industries across the charts have been laying off hundreds of employees — making the job market increasingly competitive. So what’s a freshly unemployed tech professional to do? Hit the streets and start networking. As the hordes of job-seekers descend upon trade shows, conferences and meetups around the country, a few mobile startups could be poised to profit from their misery: digital business card services. The last few months have seen the launch of a number of services, delivered via mobile technologies from iPhone apps to text messages, that aim to do away with the business card. Previously, companies may have pitched their product as a “green” alternative to dead-tree info swapping, but in today’s market, the dynamic nature of the digital business card could prove to be a more powerful selling point — at least for a startup that can dispatch updated, social media-connected personal data securely across the range of mobile devices.

The iPhone has been a key driver of the market for digital business cards, at least in terms of visibility. Gabe Zichermann, CEO of rmbrME, says his company, which had previously offered an SMS solution with about 1,000 users, had 10,000 users (and even more downloads) of its beamME application in the first 10 days it was available on the App Store. Other apps include Nameo, Handshake, FriendBook and iCard. Most of the services work roughly the same way: Bring two iPhone users together, pull up the app, and a simple touch command sends information between their devices.

However, Nameo, Handshake and iCard are limited to contacts with an iPhone. But what about those of us without iPhones? Dub, which was launched in beta in June of this year, is another option for the BlackBerry set, and as of this week, its service is also available for Android phones (currently that’s just the T-Mobile G1). (The company says service for the iPhone and Windows Mobile are due out in December.) Perhaps Dub’s biggest claim to fame is that it offers integration with common business services. Data can be beamed to a Salesforce.com contact management system, as well as to mobile devices, and Dub users will soon be able to sign into the service using their LinkedIn login and password.

But even Dub, which allows for limited cross-platform sharing, requires that both users have a smartphone and install the app. For on-the-go information sharing, the “Do you use this app?” conversation can add an extra layer of awkwardness and time. For universal sharing, users might be better off with an SMS service from players such as Dropcard, TextID and rmbrME. Even iPhone app-addicts have an option: While most iPhone apps rely on Wi-Fi networks and geolocation, rmbrME’s iPhone app, beamME, allows users to send personal data from their iPhone to any phone, whether it has a data connection or just a simple voice connection.

I’m still slogging along with a Nokia 2610, so I’m partial to technology that doesn’t leave me (with my pesky insistence on multiday battery life) out in the cold. I’ve found services like rmbrME and Dropcard to be simple to use, and I could easily send my data to smartphone-carrying folks via shortcode. Better yet, people could send info to me, without even knowing that I still carry a Stone Age-era device.

While there hasn’t been much venture investment in the space just yet, Zichermann says rmbrME has raised just shy of $1 million in angel investment, and DubMeNow has reportedly raised $1.1 million in angel funding. DreamIt Ventures provided seed funding for Dropcard. But the startup founders are optimistic: Zichermann says VCs are exactly the kind of social, tech-savvy users that “get” services like rmbrME, which should make it easier to raise funding when the time is right.

Also promising in this market: None of the services is dependent on advertising revenue. Most of the services use a “freemium” model, and several are working to add enterprise-level functionality. DubMeNow’s BlackBerry-focused, Salesforce.com-integrating app seems aimed squarely at the business-to-business marketplace. Zichermann says rmbrME also has its eye on premium services aimed at the enterprise market, such as offering a branded, customized look and feel for user cards.

You probably can’t throw away your business cards just yet. But if you’re in the market for a new job, sign up for an SMS service and head out to the trade shows.

Image courtesy of rmbrME

This article also appeared on Businessweek.com.
PE Obama’s Phone Records Breached By Verizon Employees

Posted: November 21st, 2008, 4:40am CET by Om Malik

Verizon Wireless today admitted that some of its employees had been looking into President-elect Barack Obama's cell phone billing records. In a release, the company said:
“This week we learned that a number of Verizon Wireless employees have, without authorization, accessed and viewed President-Elect Barack Obama’s personal cell phone account. The account has been inactive for several months. The device on the account was a simple voice flip-phone, not a BlackBerry or other smartphone designed for e-mail or other data services. “All employees who have accessed the account -- whether authorized or not -- have been put on immediate leave, with pay. As the circumstances of each individual employee’s access to the account are determined, the company will take appropriate actions. Employees with legitimate business needs for access will be returned to their positions, while employees who have accessed the account improperly and without legitimate business justification will face appropriate disciplinary action. “We apologize to President-elect Obama and will work to keep the trust our customers place in us every day.”
This is a good enough reason for all of us to question the privacy policies of our phone companies, which have time and again shown that they are ready to play loose-and-easy with their customer's privacy. Of course, they are known to use underhanded tactics to position themselves as the good guys, though they are anything but. [digg=http://digg.com/tech_news/President_Elect_Obama_s_Phone_Records_Breached_By_Verizon] In my opinion, this breach -- regardless of what your political leanings -- is not a good thing. If President-elect Obama's records are not safe, who is to say a disgruntled employee won't mess with those of private citizens with whom they have an axe to grind. What do you think Verizon's punishment should be?
Facebook Launches on Sony Ericsson’s Xperia Phone

Posted: November 21st, 2008, 1:49am CET by Om Malik

Facebook, which is quite a hit on smartphones such as Apple's iPhone, is making a debut on Sony Ericsson's Xperia X1 phone as a panel. Panels are special interface mechanisms unique to Xperia; they allow phone users to interact with a specific web service or an application. With this release, Facebook is now available on the iPhone, Blackberry and Windows Mobile (almost) platforms. No Facebook on Nokia's Symbian or Google's Android -- not yet, anyway. I wonder how many people will actually end up buying the X1 device, which is about to go on sale. I returned the review phone earlier today so I don't know how this app, which you can download for free, actually works. But I do know you can use it to check status updates, friends’ profiles, pics and notifications. Facebook on the iPhone remains one of the best mobile web apps -- and even other versions of Facebook pale in front of its capabilities. (Read: my X-1 Review.)
5 Things to Do for Your Career in an Economic Downturn

Posted: November 21st, 2008, 12:59am CET by Marty Abbott and Michael Fisher
Economic downturns are hard for everyone, at both work and at home. Week after week there are requests for managers to further reduce budgets, lay off more people and cut projects that were previously classified as “necessary to sustain normal business operations.” These pressures forge managers made of diamond, and those who perform well in both boom and bust are destined for greatness. The very best managers get out ahead of downturns and take action early to minimize shareholder losses and, ideally, create shareholder value.

Here are six simple questions to determine if you are one of these managers.
1. Do you treat economic hardships in your business as a time to relax, or do you look to improve your skills?
2. Do you constantly push back when new budget cuts come along, or are you offering up cost savings ahead of requests from higher level executives?
3. Do you complain that you are too short handed to accomplish your mission, or do you spend time developing tools, systems and metrics that help you determine how to get more done with less people?
4. Are your top performers worried about losing their jobs, or do you spend time nurturing them and growing them to be even more successful in their positions?
5. Do you complain that you need all of your folks, or are you constantly weeding your team of underperformers without replacing them when times are rough?
6. Do you treat hiring freezes as interview freezes, or are you constantly looking to find bigger and better talent so that you can move quickly when it’s time to hire again?
These questions help illustrate some of the steps we believe define exemplary leaders and managers in tough economic times. Put more directly, we think that the following are some of the five things that great managers and leaders do during economic downturns that help prove they are “the best of the best”:

1. Upgrading skills. This can be anything from getting an additional degree in your area of expertise, to getting a degree in a field adjacent to yours (technologists getting an MBA or marketing folks deepening their technology), to taking continuing education courses or just taking some time to become current with your job through professional reading. The best leaders and managers see being “the best” as a journey rather than a destination. We cover this in more detail in “To Get Better You Must Practice.”

2. Make More with Less. Stop talking about being the best and prove it. Put the systems in place that allow you to measure how much shareholder value you create with every dollar you spend on headcount or systems. Show how you can do more next year with the same budget or — better yet — more with less money. If you aren’t doing this as a standard operating procedure, start doing it while the economy is struggling, and you will absolutely be seen as being one of the best.

3. Mind Your Flowers. Whether you are making difficult headcount cuts or not — but especially if you are — you need to take care of the folks who are creating the most shareholder value within your organization. Exit the economic downturn with your best people on your side — not the folks with the longest tenure but the folks who create the most value.

4. Weed Your Garden. The best managers during great times are always looking to remove underperformers from their teams and upgrade them with superior performers. The best managers during economic hard times are ahead of the headcount cuts with a list of the folks who should be removed from their team for poor performance. Don’t ask if other organizations are getting their fair share of cuts; focus on what’s right for the shareholder and get it done ahead of the request!

5. Get Ready for Spring Planting. It may not seem like it today, but things will turn around; if not for your current employer then for your next employer. You need to have that list of great talent with whom you’ve been interviewing ready so that you can quickly augment your existing team as the need arises, or build your next team if your current employer doesn’t survive the downturn. Leadership is as much about people as anything else, and great leaders focus on building great teams.

Marty Abbott and Michael Fisher are partners with AKF Partners.