According to this Nokia fantasy video, their N810 WiMax Edition Internet Tablet works in San Francisco, a city specifically not mentioned by their partner, Sprint Xohm, nor by any other WiMAX service.
Chicago … San Francisco. Espoo … Helsinki. Those big cities all seem the same, after a while.
Posted on April 11th, 2008 by Norman Young
Filed under: Portable | No Comments »
We had fun demonstrating Personal Syndication at DemoCampGuelph4 last week. Thanks for all of your great feedback.
See and hear the demo here.
Posted on January 31st, 2008 by Norman Young
Filed under: Social media, Portable | No Comments »
From today’s K-W Record, Guelph’s Geosign divided a year after $160 million investment:
American Capital is now the sole owner of Moxy Media, which has inherited 150 of Geosign’s employees and, according to its website, more than 300 of Geosign’s websites.
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A minority of Geosign’s websites and about 50 employees now fall under the umbrella of eMedia Interactive Inc., which Nye controls.
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American Capital, one of the largest publicly traded private-equity firms in the U.S., bought a minority stake in Geosign in March. American Capital received two of five seats on Geosign’s board of directors.
How did a minority shareholder acquire the majority of assets, and sooner than eight months after investing?
Again, from The Record:
In May, Google told some of its users it was changing the rules of its advertising program as of June 1 to crack down on a process known as search-engine arbitrage.
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Geosign never acknowledged engaging in arbitrage, but it cut more than 50 staffers a few days before Google’s new policy went into effect.
From GeoSign’s March 6, 2007 press release, Geosign® Completes $160 Million Private Placement With American Capital:
Virginia M. Turezyn, Managing Director, American Capital Technology Group [said] “With its strong leadership, demonstrated ability to adapt to changing market conditions and unique ability to enhance user experience, Geosign is well positioned for ongoing growth as the Internet ecosystem continues to grow and evolve.”
Did Virginia get paid to say that? As a venture capitalist? By adapt and growth did Virginia mean beyond sixty days with a sole customer?
Again, from Geosign’s $160M press release:
Ted Hastings, President of Geosign [said], “The additional capital will allow us to strengthen our core product lines and provide flexibility to make strategic acquisitions of complementary technologies and Internet properties.”
Whatever they invested the $160M in apparently wasn’t newsworthy, as Geosign’s news page shows no further announcements since the equity purchase.
It seems doubly ironic that neither of the separated blog companies, Moxy Media nor eMedia, have corporate news pages or blogs.
At least these new media venture capitalists and entrepreneurs don’t see transparency as serving their interests.
Posted on November 17th, 2007 by Norman Young
Filed under: Social media | 1 Comment »
Who pays the bill?
In advertising, consumers are the product and advertisers are the customer. In telephony, communication is the product and subscribers are the customer.
Do you want to pay the data charges on advertisements delivered to your handset?
Why the paradoxical Open Handset Alliance?
I conjecture that Google entered the agreement in pursuit of ever-larger returns on its ever-growing market capitalization. Revenue from fixed-terminal web usage is not growing quickly enough to satisfy it shareholders’ speculation. Three billion handsets provide the obvious, unimaginative alternative.
In Christensen’s model of innovation, this behaviour indicates the approach of saturation in over-served markets. Next comes commoditization. Web advertising has a lot in common with cellular telephony on this point: All major parties to the Alliance are acting out of desperation.
Posted on November 9th, 2007 by Norman Young
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These photos of my Fujitsu laptop are a testament to the product’s hard-earned success. After four years of daily commuting, hundreds of trips to the lecture podium, and many hours in the gym, only the power connector has failed.
This is my second Lifebook S. I’d buy another in a minute. I put the soldering iron to this one to avoid the pain of upgrading.
Having been through the product design cycle myself, I appreciate the effort and expertise that achieve this level of reliability and value, at a profit. The Fujitsu designers have earned my inertia.
KKO provides a very detailed 20-step disassembly procedure for this common repair. However, I repaired my Lifebook S with far fewer steps. Lance J. achieved similar results.
A touch of solder on the middle pad recovered fully reliability.
Posted on November 1st, 2007 by Norman Young
Filed under: Miscellaneous | No Comments »
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| Web syndication | Personal syndication |
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View this video demonstration of personal syndication on the Nokia N800 Internet Tablet.
Click the image to view a slide show introducing personal syndication at BarCamp Waterloo on Saturday September 29, 2007. Click here to download the 1MB PDF.
Learn more at www.personalsyndication.com.
Posted on September 28th, 2007 by Norman Young
Filed under: Social media, Portable | 1 Comment »
Businesses involve three roles. Leaders articulate a vision that motivates the operators and capitalists to assign resources. Operators generate profit by adding value to materials or services. Capitalists bridge the gap between changes in vision and profitable operation.
Each successive generation of computer is characterized by an order-of-magnitude decrease in capitalization required to bridge the gap between strategic vision and gainful operation. In the 1950s, the first electronic computers were capitalized by state governments in defence applications. Through the 1960s, 70s and 80s, mainframes, minis and micros were successively capitalized by large, medium, and small businesses.
In small businesses, a single person often fills the three roles of leader, operator and capitalist. Lotus 1-2-3 exploited the small business-capitalization characteristics of the personal computer by combining features that appealed to all three roles. It provided the capitalist with a high-level, graphical insight into the state of the business. It provided the leader with strategic, what-if decision-making capability. It provided the operator with a convenient, database-like interface for routine data entry. Buying a personal computer to run Lotus 1-2-3 was a high priority for small businesses because the application benefited all three roles simultaneously, in mutually-reinforcing ways.
The electronic spreadsheet did not achieve killer status on earlier computers because the companies that could capitalize the purchase often spread the roles of capitalist, leader, and operator across multiple people among disparate groups. The business context did not accommodate the technology’s advantages.
Posted on August 24th, 2007 by Norman Young
Filed under: Disruption | No Comments »
The success of spreadsheets on personal computers inspired the term killer app. Prior to the spreadsheet, personal computers in business contexts were used primarily for word processing. Contemporary typewriters largely served most small businesses’ needs for document preparation, so the personal computer did not initially achieve a disruption against that incumbent technology.
The spreadsheet’s ledger metaphor made sophisticated modeling techniques accessible to ordinary users. Visicalc introduced what-if analysis to small business decision-making. Lotus 1-2-3 added input through data records and output through graphic plots, thereby making everyday clerical data available for operational management and executive oversight. By addressing unmet needs at all levels of administration — at a price many small businesses could afford — the spreadsheet catalyzed the personal computer’s widespread adoption.
Posted on August 16th, 2007 by Norman Young
Filed under: Disruption | No Comments »
Remember the vacuum tube radio? Large. Expensive. Power-hungry. Stationary.
What did the transistor radio do? It brought radio into your life, where you live. It catalyzed the growth of rock-and-roll. It gave an entire generation a new form of personal expression. It enabled a cultural shift.
Posted on July 12th, 2007 by Norman Young
Filed under: Disruption, Portable | No Comments »
Contrast the respective market positions.
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Apple iPhone
The Apple strategy directly aims to acquire market share among currently-served users through integration of sophisticated, expensive sustaining innovations. |
FIC Neophone
The FIC strategy specifically targets unserved markets among non-cell phone users, especially through fixed-cost wi fi access. |
| The iPhone over-serves the majority of existing cell phone users. | The Neophone enables unserved populations to become mobile users. |
Christensen and Raynor describe these conditions as typifying an industry’s commodization.
Posted on July 10th, 2007 by Norman Young
Filed under: Disruption, Portable | No Comments »
