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Archive for the ‘Technology’ Category
Google: What Goes Up…
Posted in Board Of Intellectual Capital, Business models, Economy, Gerbsman Partners, google, Investments, Market research, Strategy, Technology, Web 2.0 on April 9, 2008| Leave a Comment »
Streetspotting with Google Maps
Posted in Board Of Intellectual Capital, Business models, Gerbsman Partners, google, Market research, Strategy, Technology, Web 2.0 on April 7, 2008| Leave a Comment »
Google Maps have kept rolling out Streetview inside its maps section. Covering some 37 cities and more, the feature makes very good use of mesh and Web 2.0 technologies. Just type in your address and click on the street view button and hopefully they have cruised by and snapped some photos. Below is a sample from Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco
With a 360degrees zoom-able picture, its is an amazing trip down memory lane where I go visit places. Of course, there are some funny pictures to find aside from all the usefulness. Click here to see Mashables top-15 list of strange and fun pictures. Click here for Google’s own blog on the topic.
Mobile Video Broadcast
Posted in Community, Intellectual capital, Investments, Java, Mobile, Mobile Phone Usage, Social Networks, Sun Microsystems, Technology, Web 2.0, Wireless, Wireless 2.0 on March 28, 2008| Leave a Comment »
Recently, Mashable, Techcrunch and others have posted some good articles on mobile broadcast video. A number of companies have recently launched Mobile broadcast services; FlixWagon, Qik and Youtube´s recent addition of direct upload capabilities in the Latest API all supports this trend – mobile broadcast.
Where I am very skeptical to the live mobile-to-web broadcast option, the pre-packaged service to record and upload mobile video directly is neat and useful. The problem of the mobile video and mobile broadcast today is that while it is recorded on mobile, users download the clip to their PC´s and then uploaded to the web – which limits many good clips to reach the masses on the web through its complexity.
These small Java applications are easy to install and easy to use. With the pre-set upload assistance, mobile videos are uploaded directly to the web either as live streams or saved clips. Where geeks and techies where the only ones capable of this before, anyone can now make it happen. I wonder how quickly manufacturers and Telco´s will jump on this and pre-install these applications and affiliations to drive usage and network traffic.
To charge or not to charge…
Posted in Business models, Investments, Market research, Strategy, Technology, Venture Capital, Web 2.0 on March 9, 2008| Leave a Comment »
Here is an interesting post by Josh Kopelman at redeye VC that I came across. I does refer to the recent wired article by Chris Anderson – “Free! Why $0.00 Is the Future of Business”
“The huge psychological gap between “almost zero” and “zero” is why micropayments failed. It’s why Google doesn’t show up on your credit card. It’s why modern Web companies don’t charge their users anything. And it’s why Yahoo gives away disk drive space. The question of infinite storage was not if but when. The winners made their stuff free first.”
Viewpoints from Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain
Posted in Board Of Intellectual Capital, Gerbsman Partners, Intellectual capital, Investments, Market research, Mobile, Open Garden, Technology, Venture Capital, Web 2.0, Wireless, Wireless 2.0 on February 19, 2008| Leave a Comment »
Tony Fish is a member of Gerbsman Partners Board of Intellectual Capital and spend his days with AMF Ventures in London, UK.
I have just had the pleasure of spending a few days with the Ogilvy team at the MobileWorldCongress in Barcelona and though that you may wish to have my early thoughts!
Overall you get the impression that 2.0 thinking [the move from isolation, separation and solitude to engagement, relationship and conversation] is being taken seriously by all the players in the extended value chain – motivations being fear and greed. There is a definite awaking that customer ownership and indeed Brand Value is not about billing or handsets.
Innovation, being a good yard stick, would defiantly indicate that there is plenty of opportunity to capture both new value and leak it away from existing players, with an expectation that a ‘new entrant’ will emerge to capture a significant proportion of the value whilst the major global web and mobile players are diverted; fighting each other.
However my sense was that technology, which has been the heart of MWC in previous incarnations was not the driver this year. Indeed I would go as far as suggesting that ‘mashup’ was the focus as each of the key platforms [mobile, web, TV, print and radio], seek to own more the customers purse and mind share.
The question or debate remains however. ‘Is it open or something else?’ Our growing team http://www.amfventures.com is building and delivering strategy and knowledge on this topic as ‘Mobile Web 2.0’ is becoming main stream.
Whilst speaking with Sun, who is committed to “open”, I discovered that they are supporting a startupcamp, March 7-8th, with MySQL, Google and Saleforce all speaking, and aiming to attract startups who want to be the Google, given that many of the major 2.0 players already run on Sun! http://uk.sun.com/sunnews/events/2008/mar/startupcamp/
Widgets & Gadgets featured heavily at MWC as they have already had a significant impact on content distribution and the viral take up of new services such as social networks like Facebook and MySpace and with a number of widget only companies raising substantial VC funding recently. mashup* event is running an evening debate on Widgets, which looks to be another worth while event! http://www.mashupevent.com/event/mashup-event-widgets-gadgets
I am still looking for great blogs and content to link to our research page…… http://www.amfventures.com/20_research.html
Warmest Regards
Tony Fish
Blog of Intellectual Capital 