2006

2007 Is going to be a GREAT year

December 31, 2006 By Steve Borsch 2 Comments

Every single New Year’s Eve I get atypically enthusiastic about the upcoming year. Maybe it’s because my birthday is so close to Christmas (I often got presents as a kid for both my birthday and Christmas combined so I felt bad) and I often get pretty melancholy on my birthday looking back over the year that’s past.

But by the time New Year’s Eve rolls around, my default nature as a happy-assed, glass-is-51%-full guy is eager for the new year to start! Every day is filled with possibility, but a brand new year is a huge chunk of measured time that makes a guy think ahead further than normal.

2007 is shaping up to be a phenomenal year in technology. Web 2.0 is gaining traction with developers and rich internet applications, the service oriented architecture and Web services folks and others are looking at the explosion in amazingly good Web applications and we’ll see an acceleration in useful tools and building blocks shipping next year.

The onrush of the collective consciousness being connected to the Internet — manifested in social software, blogs/podcasts/videos, new methods of communications as well as collaborative applications — is poised to disrupt industries, empower consumers, shift the political process and much more in 2007.

I’m not going to prognosticate and make predictions other than that I stepped on the scale this morning and will probably join the millions of others in losing some weight in January which I predict will be successful!

I’d like to wish you a Happy New Year. Stay safe, take more risks, pay closer attention to loved ones and friends, find ways to participate online in ways that make sense for you, send me a dollar and, of course, keep reading my blog.

Filed Under: Life, Liberty & the Pursuit of Happiness

Patents: Ocean Tomo ETF May Spark the Trolls?

December 30, 2006 By Steve Borsch Leave a Comment

As our world accelerates toward the connection of human consciousness made possible by the ever-increasing capability of the Internet and the applications that sit on top of this “platform”, the intellectual capital contained within ideas, inventions, new processes and methodologies will become more valuable on a global basis.

If you’ve got the next, great Web 2.0 idea; a process you’ve figured out how to make more efficient; a disruptive or creative innovation you’ve figured out how to take to market; or are trying to understand where you should be investing for the next couple of decades; you really owe it to yourself to understand what the smartest people are doing in the realm of intellectual property and capital…

…or risk missing out on the next great wave of investment or a patent troll suing you for infringement.

I’ve written before about the possible patent troll Nathan Myhrvold (though the jury is still out on his actual troll status). Myhrvold has been working toward “cornering the market” on some aspects of intellectual property by patenting as many ideas and processes as possible…and then licensing them or preparing to do so. Even though he’s expressed that he’s taking the high road where trolls fear to tread, I’d bet that his firm (Intellectual Ventures) will take advantage of what the patent trolls are doing if the opportunity arises (suing a company that might be infringing on a patent they purchased from some other inventor, etc.).

How can you make money on intellectual property and — if you’re an inventor, an entrepreneur or involved in managing your company’s patent portfolio — what do you need to be aware of going forward in a world where patent trolls may prevail?

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Filed Under: Innovation, Open Media, Open Source, Technology, Web 2.0

Prediction: Apple Will Own Mass Market Web Applications

December 28, 2006 By Steve Borsch 3 Comments

Web 2.0 is about the Internet-as-a-platform. The operating system as the focal point of our knowledge and information life is over. The next phase of the Internet will be dominated by those who understand that enabling people is the key. Not just providing packaged solutions, content, advertising and other stuff tossed in our faces hoping that it’s what we will buy…but giving us tools to assemble, create and deliver content and chunks of application functionality that we choose and consume. No one does tools better than Apple which makes me predict that Apple will own mass market application creation and delivery.

Let’s look at a few obvious facts (with some opinion interlaced) so you can follow my logic:

1) NeXT, Steve Jobs’ company bought by Apple which is the foundation of today’s Mac OS X operating system, delivered WebObjects in 1996, the first object oriented Web application server enabling rapid Web application development. Patents like this one — done with WebObjects clearly in mind — points the way to what I’m starting to sense is how Apple could very well “own” the mass market Web application space.

2) Building on the unix foundation from NeXT and delivered as the operating system we know today as Mac OS X, at MacWorld in January of 2006, Apple delivers the next iteration of their iLife suite of products that delivers a completely integrated series of applications for video (iMovie), photos (iPhoto), audio (GarageBand), DVD creation (iDVDâ€š and adds Web publishing (iWeb). Critics laud the seamless and elegant integration of these applications and they’re an amazingly powerful catalyst for those deeply involved in the participation culture

3) March 22, 2006: Google releases Google Pages, an amazingly simple (and I think embarrassingly so) Web page creator. They also buy Writely, release Google Calendar, and host of other services like Google Reader, Patents, etc. Hmmm….could Pages be the way Google will enable people to assemble numerous pieces of functionality together to create their own Web applications? Yeah…but only if people want their stuff to look like my Grandpa built it in 1997.

4) August 29, 2006: Dr. Eric Schmidt joins Apple’s Board of Directors. He’s a smart guy and Google’s hot, but if you think at all deeply about the implications of this you’ll understand that Google is the only company in a position to be the engine of the internet-as-a-platform and Schmidt recognizes that the DNA of Google means they design like my Grandpa who, by the way, never used a computer. Schmidt must understand that the totality of what Apple offers, their design sense and their ability to execute is the perfect front-end to the back-end Google delivers so well.

5) Real Simple Syndication (RSS) accelerates in 2006 as the preferred content syndication method and virtually any updating content is rendered “RSS-able”. It’s still tough to cobble together a bunch of RSS feeds and republish them in any meaningful way, but just about all content is fed by RSS and can be consumed easily. Just high end tools that can incorporate RSS feeds within an overall framework are missing

6) All during 2006, Web services proliferate within the Web 2.0, Internet-as-a-platform paradigm and much of the functionality is delivered as “gadgets” or “widgets” or code snippets. These small chunks of functionality enable people to cut code and paste it into their own blog, social site area or Web site. Thousands of these Web gadgets and widgets exist (see Widgetbox, Google Gadgets) but each has their own respective look-n-feel (pretty cheesy too) and it’s NOT simple to build a Web page or a Web application incorporating these and have it look good. NOTE: if you want to get some sense of how these Web services can be mashed together (i.e., mashups), then take a peek at ProgrammableWeb’s directory of mashups here.

So how will Apple own mass market Web application creation and delivery?

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Filed Under: Innovation, Open Source, Web 2.0

Off for the Holiday…

December 23, 2006 By Steve Borsch 3 Comments

Probably no posting for a few days as I focus on family and friends. Be safe and enjoy your own time.

Filed Under: Life, Liberty & the Pursuit of Happiness

All excited about the Apple iPhone

December 22, 2006 By Steve Borsch Leave a Comment

When Wall Street gets overly excited, I get nervous. Today’s Wall Street Journal had an article entitled, “Waiting on Apple Cellphone Call” (paid site with preview only) which is about summed up in this snippet:

“Several recent analyst reports forecast that Apple would sell millions of phones within a few years, bringing in billions of dollars in revenue. Some analysts go even further, predicting the impact of an Apple cellphone on wireless carriers, chip makers and other parts suppliers.“

Then in Q2, 2007, Apple is going to introduce the replicator to make any possible product out of any matter, the Holodeck which will render any other movie, music, theatre or meatspace experience a moot point, and a new teleportation device enabling all of us to instantly leap into extra space dimensions or parallel universes and thus Apple will completely disrupt every Earth-centric industry.

Come on…I’m an Apple fanboy and own about everything they make (and multiples of each). I’m also enthusiastic enough about Apple that a large percentage of my investment portfolio is in Apple stock…but even I throttle my enthusiasm! I was in Hawaii in November of 1983 when Jobs introduced the Macintosh to the company (I was with a manufacturer’s rep company at the time as Apple had no direct sales force and we and 26 other firms were it in the U.S.) and I was pumped about the product, but even then could pragmatically understand the challenges Apple faced introducing a new paradigm in computing.

Sheesh…I thought Apple was going to introduce a tablet PC three years ago! Do I think Apple is going to introduce an Apple mobile phone?

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Filed Under: Innovation

Microsoft RSS Patent Update: Manipulate, Maneuver and Morph

December 21, 2006 By Steve Borsch 2 Comments

After reading this post and writing this one, I have more clarity on Microsoft’s approach with RSS since I just got done reading the whole patent (can you see my eyes glazing over?).

They’re NOT attempting to control the RSS protocol, but their patent is a platform play designed around controlling the RSS processes and paths in order to manipulate, maneuver and morph RSS itself. The operative and important paragraph is this one at the end:

[0150] The web content syndication platform described above can be utilized to manage, organize and make available for consumption content that is acquired from the Internet. The platform can acquire and organize web content, and make such content available for consumption by many different types of applications. These applications may or may not necessarily understand the particular syndication format. An application program interface (API) exposes an object model which allows applications and users to easily accomplish many different tasks such as creating, reading, updating, deleting feeds and the like. In addition, the platform can abstract away a particular feed format to provide a common format which promotes the useability of feed data that comes into the platform. Further, the platform processes and manages enclosures that might be received via a web feed in a manner that can make the enclosures available for consumption to both syndication-aware applications and applications that are not syndication-aware.

My “co-opting RSS” concern from the last post still stands and this is why…

Microsoft to own RSS?

December 21, 2006 By Steve Borsch Leave a Comment

Some have predicted 2007 will be the "year of RSS". I view it as the "lubrication" for internet delivered content and it clearly is what enabled the podcasting phenomena to happen, was key to the rise of blogging and memetracking, and is vital for all of us to collect and aggregate the exponentially rising amount of information coming at us from every corner of the ‘net.

So what if Microsoft owned RSS and made everybody pay for the privilege to use it?

Reading Dave Winer’s blog just now I came across this post with some intrigue over questions of his involvement in RSS (which I won’t comment on since I don’t have any facts) but included a *very* disturbing link to a patent filed by Microsoft on RSS! So much for them hiring Ray Ozzie and ostensibly embracing the Web-centric ecosystem.

I just skimmed the patent and will read it in full tonight. At first glance it simply appears that they’re positioning it as a platform and all processes central to that RSS platform are within the patent itself. I expect that much smarter and more experienced corners of the internet are going to shout this one down. If not, 2007 will be the year RSS was co-opted and became yet another choke point for innovation owned by our pals in Redmond.

Filed Under: Blogosphere, Innovation, Podcasting, Technology, Vlogging, Web 2.0

PC Sales Growth Slumping in US but Smartphones Growing

December 20, 2006 By Steve Borsch Leave a Comment

Just read this article in Macworld online about PC Sales Growth Slumping in the US:

PC sales growth in the U.S. sputtered to a halt in the third quarter of 2006, showing zero increase compared to last year, as vendors turned to strong overseas markets to generate revenue.

Worldwide, PC shipments grew 9.1 percent in the quarter, thanks to 13.5 percent growth outside the U.S., according to a report released Wednesday by IDC.

Knowing that smartphones are growing, I did a quick search and discovered this article about smartphone growth from Monday:

According to The NPD Group, the U.S. smartphone market has entered a significant growth spurt. October 2006 sales soared 230 percent from January of this year, rising from 216,000 units to nearly 715,000. On a quarterly basis in 2006, smartphone sales have risen more than four percentage points to more than 6 percent of new phones sold through October in the fourth quarter of 2006.

So if you’re developing a Web asset/application or buying commercial software for your organization, wouldn’t it be prudent to prepare for the certainty that your customers will be expecting and demanding to interact with you online from a variety of device types?

Filed Under: Technology

Virtual (and real) Friends: Importance of Authenticity

December 20, 2006 By Steve Borsch 1 Comment

A common mistake people whom I mentor make is thinking that it’s them — and not their big-deal job, the company they work for or the access to others they possess — which is attracting people to them. Granted, sometimes true, authentic friendships are forged in business, but I’ve worked with people again-n-again that take it personally when people have no time for them once their connection with that big deal job ends or the incentive for others to come after them dissolves.

Same thing happens virtually. This is increasingly problematic as more people invest their personal value into blogs, podcasts, vlogs, social networks and other places where seekers congregate. Instead of people being attracted only to those in big deal jobs or with big deal or hot companies, it’s now increasingly your big deal value or thought leadership attracting others.

For example, I’ve had people connect with me and “pick my brain” over some initiative they’re undertaking. I enjoy these connections and often receive considerably more than I give. But I have a finite amount of time each day and I charge top tier hourly rates for that time. When people ask me how long it took me to learn all of the stuff I know about technology, media and the internet, my reply is, “more than 25 years.” I’ve been doing this all of my adult life and I can give all of my time away for free…but it has tons of value and I’m not a non-profit.

I’ve been with wildly successful companies and had big deal jobs within them. It was actually fairly easy to discern who had inauthentic and spurious motives or who I was actually connecting with as a human being. For the former, I’d be gracious but not personally engaged. For the latter, I still have friends from my first tech sales job that I talk to frequently.

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Filed Under: Innovation

FutureWeb: When will we be past significant customization?

December 19, 2006 By Steve Borsch 3 Comments

Had yet *another* meeting today with a smart, accomplished marketing communications strategist wrestling with how to empower, enable and guide his client organizations toward understanding and embracing the new paradigm of Web 2.0, the participation culture and what Time magazine calls the Person of the Year (You).

The onrush of an internet connected world is doing far more than getting people to participate. It’s compressing cycles all over the place from scientific research and peer review to information delivery, communication and collaboration. Since anything on the ‘net is but a mouse click away, this connection is accelerating our ability to choose from an increasing number of alternatives and knowledge at our fingertips. I don’t care what business you’re in, if you don’t recognize that disruption is coming at you from a myriad of sources, you’re either asleep, not paying attention, or in a monastery.

The connected internet is fundamentally about technology enabling, so that’s the perspective I’ll come from in this post. During my discussions this morning, it was clear that this fellow’s clients cover the gamut of non-profits who — like those in education struggling for funding — find themselves relying upon donor’s and sponsors in order to carry out their mission.

Just like most under-funded small businesses, all of the open source, Web 2.0 and other information technology offerings are incredibly powerful but just out of reach for most of them. They’re a box of parts where what these non-profits and small businesses need is a finished automobile they can climb in and drive.

Too much customization is needed for software to meet the needs of everyone? I’d disagree with that notion. I see a whole lot of customization occurring with quasi-platform plays like Typepad, WordPress, social networking sites, and more. I’m starting to see interesting drag-n-drop "information builders" emerging like YourMinis and even more basic news-centric portals like PageFlakes.

So here’s the question for those of you willing to comment: will Apple/Google; Laszlo; Adobe; Microsoft; or some other prescient and forward looking company build the Web application assembly tool for we normal humans to use? It’s pretty clear that we’ve GOT to evolve the software industry past buying or downloading (open source) software and then basically building the entire car from a box of parts.

Filed Under: Innovation, Open Source, Technology, Web 2.0