Speedgeeking at Mashup University

Originally uploaded by dberlind

Speed geeking is the best part of the mashup camp experience with the possible exception of the free espresso. Speek geeking has mashup and API authors showcase their wares to the audience in a 5 minute window, making for an energetic, highly focused round of information.

2 notes to presenters: Bring a big screen monitor along next
camp, and people will love ya! Also, always introduce your company with a standard 60 second overview. Sometimes people are completely lost with respect to whatś up before you even begin!

Here’s a list of the highest paid folks in Technology:
http://www.webguild.org/2008/03/silicon-valley-techs-highest-paid_05.php

Hmmm – maybe it’s time for you to ask for a raise?  

CEO pay always intrigues me.   As a capitalist “free hand” market guy I like the idea of letting the marketplace decide these things, and assuming that it’ll do a good job with executive compensation.  But it sure does not seem to do a good job.    Has anybody studied the relationship of CEO pay to performance?  I’m increasingly inclined to think that we have created an insider model for these things where people serve on multiple boards and effectively vote each other compensation in line with short term needs of small elite groups rather than the long term needs of the company. 

Intel Booth, CES 2008 Pic #225

Originally uploaded by JoeDuck

I’ve posted a lot more of my pictures from CES at Flickr. I was uploading from my Treo before, but these were taken with a decent camera.

Intel had one of the largest and most impressive display setups, complete with this “green screen” booth where they’d create special effects on the screens.

The carnival style booths at CES where the companies did some creative thing were a lot more interesting, though some of the gimmicks were pretty lame. Parties and concerts probably gain a lot more attention for a company than booth babes or silly actors, though the ROI on many of the CES events would be hard to measure because much of CES is devoted to schmoozing customers or representatives rather than making actual sales or even brand building effects.

You have new Picture Mail!

Originally uploaded by JoeDuck

Mary J Blige was awesome last night as she performed after the Monster Retailer awards party held at the Paris Casino Ballroom. Monster wasn’t a name I thought of as a technology giant but they sure make a mark here at CES, often having the best entertainment of the conference as part of this awards show.

Wikipedia says that MJB got her start recording in a mall soundbooth. A friend shipped her recording to record folks. Some 23 Grammy nominations and 6 Grammys later Blige is one of the finest and most respected R&B performers in the world.

Meraki – Mesh networking & portable solar power. Awesomely innovative.

Originally uploaded by JoeDuck

Sanjit Biswas, CEO of startup Meraki. Speaking on bringing technology to developing world.

Meraki was a real standout here at CES in terms of bringing cheap, powerful innovation to the connectivity space. They are using mesh networking to bring cheap connectivity to remote areas like a Chilean fishing village (see this mesh network real time at Meraki.com). Surprisingly they are also after some pretty big markets such as San Francisco, where even Google is conspicuously failing to bring free ad supported wireless broadband .

TechCrunch noted about a week ago:
The company expects that it will only cost a few million dollars to cover all of San Francisco, compared to the $14 to $17 million estimated for the Earthlink/Google plan. “There is a pretty drastic cost advantage,” says CEO Sanjit Biswas. “Our network will come in at the low, single-digit millions,” he predicts. Meraki will even offer residents free repeaters to amplify the WiFi signal inside their homes, and shoulder the entire cost itself rather than ask for public funds.

CES 2008 South Hall Convention Center

Originally uploaded by JoeDuck

Several companies here have video screen glasses and I’ve tried a few of them. Not impressed so far although I did not try the total immersion gaming specs that might make some sense.

I think this technology is simply not ready for prime time. I’m not convinced we are designed to pull information in this fashion – part of the reason the glasses tend to have about a 40 degree field of view “screen” rather than full view, which can create motion sickness. None appeared to connect to internet (via smartphone seems simplest) although this would not be a big deal and we’ll see it soon. I think I’d rather watch a tiny ipod screen than wear these – but maybe it’s just me? Fashion seems to be important to the mass market, but I’m not convinced people really *want* this techology – do they?

CES 2008: Hemp Webcams!

Originally uploaded by JoeDuck

This one got a double take from me so I thought a picture would work better than a description. Turns out the company makes high end personal webcams in designer colors like wood, steel, and … hemp?

It’s probably an oversimplification, but CES is almost divided into two camps of companies – perhaps a few hundred global players like Intel, Microsoft, GM who spend hundreds of thousands if not millions advertising and partying and working at this show and getting most of the press buzz, combined with thousands of little players from all over the world. Part of the CES appeal to those folks – who get very little media attention – is that they can meet with suppliers and buyers and presumably learn about the latest in their industry as well.

The diversity is staggering here – from concept cars to robot lawn mowers to ipod cases. From junk to the latest good stuff.