Posts Tagged 'חדשנות'



5min with FuxyTunes and Mudo

There have been several announcements recently regarding Israeli hi-tech companies – either bought by large corporations or introduced what could be the next big thing in the business. Respect.

The first time I heard about 5min.com was over at Ouriel’s blog, when the company was chosen (along with 14 other) to travel to California for IsraelWebTour. I thought it’s a nice concept, making a 5min tutorial videos, but the only differentiator between YouTube for instance is that 5min.com are limiting the content in terms of time (5min max) and type (tutorial). My opinion still stands, and I guess only time will tell if I’m right or wrong. I hope I’m wrong.

On related news, Yahoo! announced earlier this week they are buying Israeli company FoxyTunes.com, which lets you control almost any media player and find lyrics, covers, videos, bios and much more with a click right from your browser. Again, Respect! I think FoxyTunes was the first extension in my Firefox – had no idea (at the time) it was an Israeli company…

Last but not least, is ModuMobile.com, from M-Systems founder Dov Moran. The company is said to introduce the next big thing in the world of mobile devices. And the short video they released to the web (excellent viral marketing example) didn’t shed more light on the mystery. Now I’m reading they will introduce their mobile solution in October 2008 – a mobile device that takes your personality where ever you go – laptop at work, mp3 in the car, GPS, media system at home, etc. Interesting.

These are only 3 examples of Israeli innovation. No wonder IBM Corporation decided to open up the Global Technology Unit (GTU) in Israel at 2001 – a corporate initiative to promote world wide business for IBM with Israeli-based technology companies. Not to mention the numerous Software and Storage acquisitions IBM made in Israel – XIV being the last one – and the excellent work IBM Haifa Research Lab are doing, both locally and worldwide.

Impressions from a virtual world

After attending and speaking at the Virtual Worlds, Real People Conference this past week, I must say my interest level in virtual worlds has risen. First of all, IDC Herzeliya managed to organize excellent agenda, that really covered, or tried to cover, every aspect of VW. The speakers are active users, either academic of business, including Moshik Miller, a very passionate Ph.D student, doing his Doctorate on the economy of virtual worlds at the Technion. I also met Dr. Yesha Sivan, a metaverse researcher, who spoke about the Full 3D3C (3D, Collaboration, Creation and Commerce) – an interesting way of measuring a virtual world. For instance, World of Warcraft is superb at 3D (amazing graphics) and Collaboration, but lacks in Creation (everything is created by the game) and Commerce (no real economy). Secondlife is good at Collaboration, Creation and Commerce, but lacks in 3D (very low graphical quality). During the break-outs I had some discussions with participants who were intrigued on IBM’s activities and keen to find out how we can work together. There are 2 on-going projects right now, that obviously I can’t comment on, but will do so in the coming weeks.

Here are the slides I showed. You can download them [PDF format, 6MB] here.

More presentations are available at slideshare.net/dvirreznik.

IBM and the Metaverse

DC Herzeliya are holding a unique conference coming Tuesday (15th), Virtual Worlds, Real People. The conference is organized by The Asper Institute for New Media Diplomacy, part of The Sammy Ofer School of Communications. Small excerpt from the agenda:
People are spending increasing amounts of time in online virtual worlds and massive-multiplayer online games. Our goal is to bring together people from around Israel (and a few visitors) who are interested in the psychological, sociological, and communication aspects of such virtual worlds.

The conference is mainly academic, with an interesting agenda and speaker list (I’m not saying that because I’m on the list.. ). First of all, I think it’s the first time metaverse has its own conference in Israel, that is both academic and business. IDC has a feel for new media, and even held the first Blogference back in 2007. The discussions will cover almost every field relating to virtual worlds, starting with social impacts, business opportunities, economy, personal interactions, user interface and design, human behavior and much more. Other than my presentation, IBM and the Metaverse, which will focus on IBM activity in virtual worlds, I’m looking forward to hearing my colleagues speak, particularly on the social impacts and human behavior.

In a Global Innovation Outlook report IBM published back in 2007, titled Virtual Worlds, Real Leaders, there is a discussion on how MMORPGs increase leadership skills, and shape the personality of future leaders: If you want to see what business leadership may look like in three to five years, look at what’s happening in online games [Byron Reeves, Ph.D].

The conference will take place coming Tuesday, January 15th, at IDC Herzeliya. I will post my presentation at slideshare.net after the conference.

The Business of Virtual Worlds

There’s a workshop planned for mid-January at IDC (The Interdisciplinary Center in Herzeliya), titled ‘Virtual Worlds, Real People’, which focuses on the psychological, sociological, and communication aspects of virtual worlds.
The workshop is academic oriented, and the folks over at IDC have invited me to lecture about the business implications of virtual worlds, and especially what IBM is doing there, and why.

In order to prepare for the presentation, I search some internal and external resources. My first destination was Roo Reynolds, IBM’s own Metaverse Evangelist, working our of Hursley, UK.
In 50 words, Roo Reynolds is a Metaverse Evangelist based at IBM UK’s Hursley Park laboratory. For the past two years he has been helping people understand the importance of social software and virtual worlds. He’s also helping create a virtual world within IBM’s intranet. He is rather tall, and blogs at rooreynolds.com.

After that, I found a post from The CIO network, called Advice and Opinion, which gives a pretty good idea of why virtual worlds are the next thing for collaboration, and why Roo is the person to talk to, and learn from.
I’m happy IBM has a metaverse evangelist because virtual worlds hold tremendous promise for collaboration and work of all kinds, and IBM’s got lots of bright people and plenty of money to put into a) figuring out how to make that work and b) communicating that to the aforementioned chronically unhip businesspeople.
The full post is here.

You can also watch Roo’s presentation, The IBM 2010 CIO Outlook at slideshare.net.

See you at the workshop…

Mental note: not all companies are IBM…

It’s has been an interesting week for me, in my 2nd week as Portal, Lotus and Collaboration Software Sales, for IBM Software Group. I met with customers, business partners, colleagues and drove a lot. But, no complaints. It’s good to see the interest some of my products arose within the industry. I had 3 different meetings this week on Lotus Quickr and Lotus Connections and next week I have some more. Not to mention the interest our real-time collaboration (pdf) software has made, Lotus Sametime, with its versatility, set of features, level of security and openness.

As this is my first sales role, I always remind myself that not all companies are IBM. In many ways, not just revenues and global reach. Also in adaptation and implementation of software, especially collaboration software such as Lotus Quickr, Lotus Connections and Lotus Sametime. Innovation is more than just a buzz word. It’s a way of doing business, both internal and external. If you don’t sponsor a culture of innovation within your employees, it’s almost impossible to foster such a culture externally.

That’s why I think Lotus Quickr and Lotus Connections are the right software at the right time. We’re right at the crossroads, of businesses trying to figure how to “deal” with web 2.0, collaboration and innovation. How can my business grow from those trends? how can I stay ahead of the competition?

I met this week with Blink IT, a web 2.0 consulting company, relatively new (under 12 months), that has good ties with business and corporations. Their business is consulting companies on how to implement web 2.0 technologies in the business. What tools to adopt, where to begin, what is the name of this new department, etc. They told me that many of the customers they meet don’t know where to begin. They want to adopt collaboration, foster innovation, create more business, but not sure how. And we’re not talking about old, traditional businesses, also new and hi-tech businesses – that are simply lost. Lotus Quickr and Lotus Connections provide a good first step for business wanting to join the collaboration trend, innovate from within and stay ahead. I hope our products and their skills will benefit more and more businesses in Israel, looking to put their feet at the web 2.0 door, just a notch, and continue from there. It’s possible, and some have already done it.

To conclude this post, I thought you might be interested in some articles, published recently by my colleagues from Lotus in the US. I “starred” them for later reading, maybe you’d like to do the same.
Collaboration University (CU): With the first session in Kansas City ending this week, and the second one coming up next week in London, there are amazing responses from participants. There was also a live coverage of several lectures, that you can replay and also tune this week, for CU in London, UK (July 18-20).
Quickr Demos: lots and lots of Quickr Demos (for QSite, QActivities, QContacts, QIssues, QMeeting and QAnnounce) – all courtesy of Rob Novak.
Lotus Sametime: new demo of Sametime 7.5.1 now available, courtesy of Adam G.
Ed Brill came back from Japan Lotus Conference.
and there’s always something interesting over at The Quickr Blog.

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Mobile & Media Consultant. I help startup companies launch products to the consumer market. Reach out: dvir.reznik [at] gmail.com
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This is my personal blog. The postings here do not represent the thoughts, intentions, plans or strategies of my past employers or of my clients. It is solely my opinion.