Blog Archives
This tech news is not embargoed
By David Needle | October 30, 2009Embargoes -- can't live with them, can't live without them. That was one of several themes running through a spirited discussion among tech journalists and PR people last night.
For the uninitiated, embargoes are the controversial process where a tech company, usually its PR firm, offers to give advance details on a news story in exchange for the reporter agreeing not to publish the story until the exact release date and time dictated by the vendor.
The event, titled: "Embargo 2010: An Industry Discussion on Future Rules of Media Engagement," was held in downtown San Francisco at the Varnish gallery and wine bar and hosted by [Waggener Edstrom](http://www.Wagged.com), one of the longtime biggies in tech PR that counts Microsoft among its key clients.
(Photo: from left to right: Mark Glaser, Damon Darlin, Tom Foremski and Dylan Tweney. Photo by Marie Domingo).
The kickoff was a panel smoothly moderated by former tech reporter [Sam Whitmore](http://www.mediasurvey.com/) that included editors from the *New York Times* (Damon Darlin), Wired.com (Dylan Tweney), Mark Glaser, MediaShift (PBS) and the tech blog Silicon Valley Watcher (Tom Foremski).
The reason embargoes are controversial is they require reporters give up a level of control in how and when a story is reported. Publications and Web sites also often break embargo agreements, deliberately or by accident, leaving the competition fuming as they scramble to catch up in this increasingly real-time news cycle.
"Embargo is Latin for '(expletive) you'!" cracked Tweney. "For the reader embargoes let us do more timely, thorough coverage, but we've also been screwed by them."
Last chance to see world's ugliest Web site
By David Needle | October 14, 2009Oddly enough, there's a company eager to stake the claim of World's Ugliest Web site.
"Over the past few months, our team has visited thousands of Web sites, and none is as ugly as Guidezilla," said Ryan Duques of WD Enterprises, citing Guidezilla's lackluster graphics, tricky navigability, and ho-hum fonts as examples of its unsightliness.
WD Enterprises owns [Guidezilla](http://http://www.guidezilla.com/), an event calendar site. The company had no qualms proclaiming its own site as the world's ugliest in a release, part of a clever campaign (hey, it caught my eye) to tout a site redesign set to be unveiled November 2.
"We engaged our users as a focus group and then began to scour the Internet for best-in-class examples. While visiting these sites we realized something else -- ours is really ugly," said Duques.
The new look will enhance the user's experience with improved navigation, clean graphics, and faster loading pages.
Currently focused on the northeast, Guidezilla.com accepts and hosts events from around the United States. The site also acts as an aggregator, which republishes events on Web sites like [www.madisonct.com](http://www.madisonct.com), [brooklynheightsblog.com](http://brooklynheightsblog.com), and [www.lncurrents.com](http://www.lncurrents.com).
Data intelligence firm Atigeo lands IBM
By David Needle | October 12, 2009Atigeo will have its formal coming out party next week at the [Web 2.0 Summit ](http://www.web2summit.com/web2009)in San Francisco. CEO and co-founder Michael Sandoval is a former director of partner strategy and general manager at Microsoft where he worked for ten years overseeing three consulting groups at the software giant that catered to the needs of large companies.
That experience led to the creation of Atigeo, an "intelligence platform" company based in Bellevue, WA. Atigeo, the result of a four year R&D effort, is, the company said, built on the principle of consumer empowerment. More details about the company and IBM's involvement will be announced next week, but it already has customers and a fair bit of information at its [Web site](http://www.atigeo.com).
Atigeo's xPatterns platform, Lifepass, is designed to let consumers manage their digital identity, have more personalized online experiences, and increase their privacy. The company said enterprise partners can use the intelligent algorithms and adaptive learning woven into xPatterns, to discover, understand, and act on data patterns that may be overlooked by traditional analytics tools.
In contrast to conventional thinking, Atigeo said it believes consumers and companies can find greater success when individuals control their personal information, and allow businesses to market to them on their terms. The idea is to let consumers receive more relevant messaging, and, in theory, businesses gain more satisfied customers.
xPatterns is described as a high definition data relevance platform that uses advanced artificial intelligence to learn and derive true knowledge from data to facilitate personalized human experiences of "unprecedented relevance."
[SportsBuy](http://www.sportsbuy.com), "the world's largest dedicated marketplace for sports collectibles," had offered customers recommendations based on a static keyword search system, but said it moved to Atigeo for greater personalization and relevance. Also, Atigeo's Lifepass protects the individual user's data in a private profile resident with the user, instead of cookies, which puts Atigeo in compliance with the most stringent US and EU privacy regulations.
Why Steve Ballmer now digs high-priced phones
By David Needle | October 12, 2009Remember Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer's [famous jab](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5oGaZIKYvo) at the iPhone when it first came out at a $500 price?
"...that is the most expensive phone in the world and it doesn't appeal to business customers because it doesn't have a keyboard," said Ballmer.
Well it wasn't really the most expensive phone in the world. In fact, Ballmer just endorsed another one costing $500 more -- but hey, it has a keyboard.
Ballmer was on hand with famed Italian designer Giorgio Armani October 9 to help launch a new Armani-Samsung smartphone that will sell for 700-euro ($1,032) and will, of course, run Microsoft's new Windows Mobile 6.5 software. It actually sports both a touch screen and keypad.
Samsung said the new Giorgio Armani-Samsung smartphone is "the most elegant and functional mobile on the market."
The phone features what the Samsung said is a unique two step tilt hinge form factor with both full touch screen and QWERTY keyboard hybrid, and "a stunning 3.5 inch Ultra Brilliant AMOLED display."
Is GPS that 'talks' to cars a safety breakthrough?
By David Needle | October 09, 2009The next great car safety breakthrough could come from outer space.
Ford Motor Company and Auburn University said a joint research project shows global positioning system (GPS) satellites that "talks" to cars could help prevent accidents in the future.
The idea is that a GPS satellite could work as a kind of early warning system that detects when a vehicle is about to lose control, and communicate with the vehicle's stability control systems and other safety features to prevent a rollover or, in theory, other types of accidents.
Ford said virtual reality tests show that GPS satellites can precisely monitor a vehicle's motion, which could improve the speed and effectiveness of electronic stability control systems. The car company sounds eager to move ahead with the project.
"A satellite orbiting the earth could someday prevent an auto accident," said Dr. Gerhard Schmidt, Ford's CTO and vice president of research and advanced engineering. "We applaud the Auburn team for these advancements and look forward to working together on the next phase of this research, including developing prototype vehicles."
The research findings will be presented next week at the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers' International Conference on Systems, Man and Cybernetics in San Antonio, Texas, Oct. 11-14.
The project is part of Ford Motor Company's $4 million investment in university research programs in 2009 that includes 16 safety projects.
**Volvo goes under cover**
Separately, Volvo sneaked a preview of its sporty new Volvo S60 not set for release until next year. The company said a disguised prototype S60 sedan was driven through the streets of Copenhagen to test a new safety technology that can detect a pedestrian in front of the car and brake automatically if the driver doesn't react in time.
Presumably the test was a success based on Volvo's upbeat release on the project, though I haven't checked accident reports in Copenhagen.
The new technology, Collision Warning with Full Auto Brake and Pedestrian Detection, will be introduced with the new Volvo S60 in 2010. Volvo said its safety experts have been working with Pedestrian Detection technology for ten years and have already tested it in other cars in other parts of the world.
What's the future of advertising?
By David Needle | October 02, 2009Google and the Wharton School think it can help provide some of the answers.
The two are teaming up on ["Fast. Forward" a new YouTube channel](http://www.youtube.com/user/FastForward) that features short, 30 sec - 3 minute videos from industry and academic thought leaders. The project is an outgrowth of research being done at the Wharton School's Future of Advertising Project.
Wharton Marketing Professor Jerry Wind told me the aim of the project is to reexamine advertising and figure out what works and what doesn't.
"And then we thought, 'Why limit it to our 40 or so advisory members? Why not open it up to a broader audience and the wisdom of the crowds'."
Google loved the idea and the Fast.Forward marketing channel was born as a partnership between the college and the search giant. Wind said the short videos are just the start.
"The idea is to become the place for credible, objective information on marketing and advertising that's current and most compelling. We'll also have links to other publications and research being done at Wharton on many of the topics being covered."
Also in the works is a recommendation feature that will offer viewers suggestions on similar videos or ones that viewers of the same video also viewed.
How about the viability of YouTube itself as a marketing vehicle as a topic for discussion?
