Augmented Reality Among Time’s 10 Tech Trends for 2010
Thanks to the growing popularity of mobile augmented reality (AR) applications such as Layar and Wikitude , as well as countless advertising campaigns from corporate giants, AR is beginning to make its way out of the shadows of obscurity and into popular culture. Once an experimental technology left for expert engineers, AR is becoming more and more accessible to both developers and consumers of the experiences. Now, the greater AR community has another feather for its cap as Time Magazine has recognized it as one of its 10 Tech Trends for 2010. Sponsor “One challenge for 2010 will be harnessing the growing ubiquity of webcams and smart-phones to make augmented reality useful as a tool in day-to-day life,” writes Time’s Dan Fletcher, pointing out the U.S. Postal Service’s virtual box simulator that helps customers determine what size box to use by holding the item they are shipping up their webcam. Unfortunately, Fletcher merely skims the surface of AR in his 10 part article published Monday, and in doing so he unintentionally labels players in the mobile AR space as “gimmicky.” I can see how it would be easy for someone investigating AR iPhone apps to be overwhelmed at the plethora of apps that let you shoot things in an augmented first-person perspective, but it is still disappointing that he failed to notice the quality apps in the space. But hey, it’s still great for us augmented reality fans to see our beloved emerging technology receive national notoriety in a publication such as Time, so we’ll take what we can get. AR snagged the #4 position on Time’s list, but when you look at some of the other trends listed, you notice that AR is already taking advantage of most, if not all of them. Time’s #1 tech trend for 2010 is location, and it points out the growing popularity of services like Foursquare and Gowalla . Mobile AR applications have been taking advantage of location data since day one and it continues to play a crucial role. After location comes “building platforms, not websites,” which Layar has been developing with their third-party POI data-sets and their upcoming layer marketplace . Good thing “frictionless payments” is another trend to watch for in 2010, otherwise Layar’s marketplace would be ahead of its time. Also on Time’s list is social gaming, and social objects, immediately reminding me of Tonchidot’s Sekai Camera app which lets users leave AR objects in physical space for people to interact with through the application. One could argue that AR uses all of the other nine technologies featured on Time’s list with the exception of the iPad, which unfortunately has no camera with which to augment our realities. On a related note, Layar co-founder Claire Boonstra was named to Laptop Magazine’s list of the most influential women in technology . Alongside Boonstra was Google ‘s Marissa Mayer, Caterina Fake of Flickr and Hunch fame, and Melinda Gates. This, as well as Time’s inclusion of AR on their tech trends list, is great exposure for augmented reality. If you’d like to learn more about how companies are using augmented reality for marketing in both desktop and mobile-based experiences, be sure to check out our latest premium report on the subject which was released earlier this week. Discuss
"Super Angel" Firm Maples Investments Rebrands as FLOODGATE
Silicon Valley angel investor Mike Maples Jr., known for his early investments in Digg and Twitter , announced recently that his firm Maples Investments has rebranded as FLOODGATE in an effort to fulfill his experiment of becoming a “super angel” firm. The term “super angel” mostly speaks for itself: instead of carefully picking a few select companies to invest in each year, super angels broadly place more money in a larger number of early-stage startups. Sponsor By making the shift from Maples Investments to FLOODGATE, Maples is jumping into the super angel game with both feet in attempts to take the firm to “the next level.” He hopes that the creation of FLOODGATE will “address a big gap in venture capital” between seed level angel investments and larger rounds from traditional VC firms. According to the newly rebranded homepage, the super angel strategy is a response the growing number of startups, the falling number of IPOs, and the rising level of VC investments – all of which make finding early-stage funding more difficult. Additionally, the site offers that super angel investments can provide more exit options. “If a business raises a small amount of initial capital, then exceeds its early milestones and decides to swing for the fences, it can then raise a larger sum at a higher price, while preserving ownership,” the site says. “If the business is not ready for rapid growth, it preserves the option for an exit at around $50 million, while still delivering a high return for investors. This dual-track model is less available to companies that raise large amounts of money early.” Are we witnessing the birth of a new branch of venture capital? It is interesting to consider the gap that Maples is attempting to fill; smaller individual seed level angel investments at one end, and the hundreds of millions of dollars that VC firms have been known to invest at times. It certainly seems that there is an opportunity for endowed individuals to invest at a higher level than a typical angel would, but at the same time there are smaller VC firms that focus smaller investments on young companies. Can super angels sit in the space between angels and firms that target smaller amounts at early-stage startups? Will more of the larger firms begin to invest smaller amounts instead of waiting for the companies worthy of a nine-figure investment? Will angels start investing more of their own money closer to super angel levels? Is FLOODGATE’s method of casting a wide net in hopes of catching one or big fish a wise choice? Will their approach put pressure on other angels to invest more or at a higher level? It is unclear what, if anything, will happen, but what is clear is that FLOODGATE plans to push more money into the early-stage startup market, which is great news for the entrepreneurs out there looking for funding. Let us know how you feel about the idea of super angels and their effects on the VC industry in the comments below. Discuss
SenderOK: Email as a Facebook Connector and Social CRM Catalyst
The effort to bring Facebook into the enterprise continues with more services using Outlook as a gateway to extend a contact network and use as a foundations for a CRM environment. SenderOK is one of the latest effiorts to give more context to email by showing a picture of the sender in an email message. Too bad it only works on Windows XP or Vista. Ugh. Sponsor But let’s take a look at the service as we are seeing more services that use email as a foundation for a social CRM environment. SenderOK compares itself to Microsoft’s Outlook Soclal Connector and Xobni , an email plug-in that provides a search and profile element for Outlook. But we hear a lot of criticism that Xobni is a memory hog and slows down computers. As one reader said about Xobni in our last post concerning Outlook plug-ins : “Interesting article, although I have my doubts about Xobni which I used for several months but had to uninstall as it had gotten to the point where it was nearly impossible to use (too slow). Harmony sounds promising; sharing documents in place of merely sending them as attachments (hence overloading the network) is becoming critical if one wants to keep only one copy and not scatter several around.” To be fair, Xobni is the leader in this space compared to other services. They have a loyal following. It makes sense that companies like SenderOK would go after this sector of the market. SenderOK features include a smart mapping capability to give a view of the person’s unread email across multiple accounts. It will also prioritize the email. Our interest stems from the SenderOK “business card” feature. Email includes an image of the person and their profile information in the header of the message. In Outlook Social Connector, the image of the sender blocks out the message. In Xobni, the image and contact information appears in a widget. We expect these services to proliferate as more startups turn their attention to Outlook as a way to build a user base. Xobni has proven that this approach works. Further, Google Apps now integrates with third party applications. Services such as Zoho CRM and Intuit are leveraging GMail integration to offer hybrid applications. Perhaps 2010 will be the year email is viewed more as a foundation than a nuisance to be eliminated. Discuss
Network as a Service: Open Source Enables Efficient Cloud Hosting
To keep up with the growth of cloud computing and virtualization, networks keep evolving. But unlike Twitter’s Trending Topics, IT budgets don’t scale up. In fact one of the major initiatives in many IT shops is creatively reduce their own expense. To get to a scalable cloud infrastructure where costs are contained, it sounds like the network industry is going to see a time where a “Linux” arrives on the scene. An open source alternative to building networks may disrupt the networking landscape and give network admins an open source network operating system. Sponsor Virtualization: It’s in the Network Too Distributing workload across machines, storage, and environments has required networks to be smarter than ever. Now, the network needs to be intelligent enough to not only route traffic both a bridge and a toll-gate, but to also provision and de-provision all aspects of the environment at a moments notice. Providers like Rackspace are in the business of using the network to optimize the performance of the entire data center. To be effective in keeping up with dynamic system provisioning, technical teams need access to all tiers of the computing environment to reduce operations overhead. In their innovation for efficiency, hosting providers, such as Amazon Web Services and Rackspace start to create new patterns – including ones in the core of the network – to get their job done. Network operating systems that are open, like Extreme XOS enable large scale hosting providers to look deeper into networking gear and start to tune it themselves. And enterprises may follow this trend. Servers Don’t Sleep at Night, but Applications and Admins Do For a long time, networks have been used to detect the peers and devices. Many of us use the nearly ubiquitous DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol), which is the the thing that automatically assigns IP addresses to a PC when plugging into the network. In an analogy, there is a need for a “super DHCP” is needed that can keep up with the highly virtualized cloud infrastructure per virtual instance. To do this, engineers look deeper to find efficiencies in how the network talks to the hardware and software for the virtual machines. A good example of benefit for this is where a resource has peak loads during the day. Due to natural usage, the applications compute power is not utilized during the night. Using monitoring and provisioning tools, the network can de-provision the extra hardware and offer it to another service. This “freeing up” allocation saves power and money. This is a simple example of where virtual data center solutions are being innovated in the industry to figure out how to further timeshare the computing resources. The network has the ability to help manage the scale down to the moment is enabled by it’s reach to everything over IP (Internet Protocol). The Open Network Wins, Developers Rule Extreme Networks is betting IT leaders that have become very familiar with Linux and open source Hypervisors like XEN want to tweak the network. For the data center manager that wants to go into the core network engines innovate, there comes a need for APIs, SDKS, and open access libraries. Extreme’s openness is in the form of web services, many offered that are offered as XML or CLI scripting that allow integrate tools into the core of the network via XML, and configure edge ports for security and VOIP access as dynamic provisioning. The company offers a code workbench of its own to download widgets to plug into the network. Designed for the open source developer, it shares the familiar pattern that presides in open source community for application frameworks and operating systems code sharing. Shown in the diagram, Extreme’s network offers real-time provisioning of code widgets in the network. Play Nice: the Networks Worse Enemy May be Success Will the network evolve to see an open source player that drives change in pricing and value? In the rush to enable new efficiencies we wonder if this is an Apple A-HA moment in the making. The question seems to be can the giants in the space balance the fine line of better end-to-end experience of managing the environment and whether vendors do it best. If we follow the Apple example of industry success, and end-to-end play for the network may be in the cards. Last month, Juniper announced it has created a new business group and commitment to an Junos ecosystem. Juniper has made a big move towards open source innovation in it’s recent re-branding and at least to one analyst, John Furrier from Silicon Angle, seems to be suggesting that Juniper Judo’sing Cisco, like Google did with Open and Microsoft . That probably doesn’t feel the least bit nice to the market leader, especially when Cisco is priming it’s engines for changing the Internet forever. Cisco Open IOS in 2007 a model towards compartmentalizing and opening IOS, as part of it’s overall movement into a more software based organization.With the complex series of network enhancements and feature sets, it will be interesting to see how Cisco views “open” vs. “customizable” and where the control lives for network management and up-time. When visiting the Cisco IOS website today, we see the standard license and no clear mention of open source licensing. Cisco strikes the balance between open and controlled in it’s a approach to defining what an open network is and where networks will be encapsulated as services. We wonder if Cisco deliver the capabilities to pull more traffic into it’s end-to-end range, while open networking APIs rise as part of the network service stack. With this market, it’s likely both. At very least, open networking has a role in determining the fate of the network and where territories are being defined. The Cloud is a Network of Services The cloud is defining a world where service orientation rules – both the software and physical layers. And, it is breaking the rules of workload distribution, where network topologies are changing. The requirements of connecting the layer 2 and layer 3 networks, as well as IT leaders that are building solutions for mass scaling (enterprises or service providers) are evolving and being driven by an ability to be efficient at the workload level. Extreme Networks Technical Brief, Dynamic Network Virtualization Overview , explains the value of plug and play network components in today’s topology. “By leveraging Extreme Networks® ExtremeXOS®, a modular, edge-to-core operating system, and our extensibility frame-work including Universal Port Scripting and an XML interface, Extreme Networks is able to tightly integrate the switching network with the virtualization environment to create a virtualization-aware network fabric that automates the network-level virtualization required in next generation data center and cloud computing environments. This unique functionality enables Extreme Networks to provide seamless support of virtualization capabilities across the various hypervisor platforms, including Citrix ZEN, Microsoft and VMware. The highly integrated solution allows the Extreme Networks solutions to trigger responses to virtualization moves as they happen in the network by virtue of a tightly integrated XML-based network management framework.” Extreme, and now Juniper, are moving in the direction of offering IT administrators control points in networks and protocols to optimize it opens the market. It looks promising to give administrators vendor leverage in buying services without vendor lock, or waiting for feature releases from the vendor. And, it mirrors the open-source movement in bringing communities together to solve problems and build compatible services. Open APIs may define the cloud’s network of the future for large hosting providers. We wonder if for the enterprise. Photo credit: opensourceway Discuss
Weekend Reading: 17 Rules by David Russo
For entrepreneurs trying to form a startup, one of the first challenges they face that persists throughout the businesses life is how to find and keep talented partners and employees. From finding that first co-founder to finding the prolific programmers to fill your ranks later down the line, talent acquisition is always a major step in any business. Just look at some of the deals that have gone down in the Valley; Facebook didn’t buy FriendFeed for their technology, that deal was mostly about getting FriendFeed’s talented employees on the Facebook team. Sponsor A new book from author David Russo, 17 Rules Successful Companies Use to Attract and Keep Top Talent: Why Engaged Employees Are Your Greatest Sustainable Advantage , seeks to make this process more clear for businesses. Russo is the CEO of Eno River Associates, Inc., which is a consulting service that helps business executives build better team relationships. Their portfolio of clients includes American Express, Johnson & Johnson, and the CIA. With his new book, Russo outlines the key strategies he has learned over the years as a consultant and human resources executive that has helped him and others create winning teams. The book doesn’t waste any time getting into its 17 rules; after a brief introduction the entirety of the book consists of one chapter per rule. The rules cover a broad base of topics, including the more straightforward rule #4, “Provide Ample and Appropriate Resources,” to the more abstract rule #12, “Understand Human Capital.” One of the key rules that sticks out to me is #3, “Cultivate Leadership, Not Management, and Know the Difference!” “Whereas managers administrate, leaders have the power to influence, to motivate, even inspire, and those are distinctly different traits,” writes Russo. “Indeed, true leadership is the ability to display attributes that make people want to follow.” Russo points out that leaders need to have passion, vision, and energy, as well as recognize that each employee has value to the success of the business. He likens this value to a tight end in a football game running “a crisp pattern” and distracting the defense despite knowing before the play that he’s not going to be the ball carrier. Another rule which will likely strike a chord with the startup culture is #10, “Make Room for Fun in the Workplace (Nurture Lightheatedness/Levity).” Anyone who has seen the popular workplace movie “Office Space” knows what a bland work environment can do to employees spirits, but I don’t think we have to worry about startups not having enough fun on the job. Aside from being passionate about the job they’re doing, most startup employees are probably used to everyday being “casual Friday” and taking a brain break in a game room. Granted, not every experience is like this, but we all know that many startups are a very relaxed environment, which Russo says is very important for attracting skilled employees and keeping them happy. Other important rules Russo includes on his list include knowing how and when to “cheerlead,” acknowledging and rewarding efforts and contributions, and the lastly, telling the truth. While this book isn’t aimed directly at startups, young entrepreneurs looking to lead their team to success should certainly take a look at this book. One of reasons I would suggest it is that at times, young entrepreneurs who have little or no workplace experience are suddenly thrust into a CEO role. If your company takes off, you might be in charge of a lot of people very quickly, and this book will certainly help keep them happy. Disclosure: A review copy of 17 Rules was provided to ReadWriteWeb by Pearson Education, Inc. Photo by Flickr user madebytess . Discuss