So...What's Next?!?

Dan Heintzelman

As President of GE Energy Services, Dan Heintzelman is responsible for over $10 billion in GE Operations. Dan is leading GE’s quest to find innovative solutions, sources and uses to address tomorrow’s energy needs.

Dan gives credit to the compelling perspectives on that challenges facing out economy. Adovocate of a very focused approach on policy from government.

GE Commercial

GE is a leading player in developing new technologies and bringing them to the market. Breakthrough innovations happen about once every generation. Entrepreneurs make daily incremental moves toward innovations.

The innovation of power we will make in the next 5 years will dramatically change the game.

China and India are increasing their energy consumption as the US decreasing.

Decisions will need to be made globally.

GE is working with the both the Indian and Asian authorities.

Stimulus packages building more sustainable energy sources.

GE's Smart Grid will be making Alternative Energy available.

Ron Clark Presentation

Starting with a great video which is making me a bit emotional.

Has built the most innovative creative school that helps kids to love learning.

When he gets a feeling in his heart he runs with it - which led him to a school in Harlem in 1999. He got Internet access for every kid in his class (5th grade) - everyone of his kids graduated high school and many are in college. This was a class that was below grade level when he went in.

He speaks to kids with respect.

He was able to teach kids at an accelerated rate because of technology.

If the teachers can not be innovative and creative how do we encourage our kids to be innovative and creative.

He is on the table...

As much energy and creativity and innovation as he has - he is also all about rules and being specific about what is expect - a blend of innovation and structure.

His book, which Oprah told him to write - was not doing so well, so he went back to Oprah and "when Oprah holds something on her bosoms, that is all it takes" The Essential 55 became a best seller. 

During construction of his school they had 19 break-ins "because crack heads are crazy!"

After he reached out to the community to let them know what he was doing they started helping.

There has not been one instance of violence or vandal since the school opened.

School is full of innovation and technology.

Definition 6 and Michael Kogon came in and helped them make sense of all the technology that had been donated to them.

The best part of the school is they are showing people how to build people who want to be the world leaders of tomorrow.

Teachers from all over the country and the world are coming to the school and taking these ideas and spreading the ideas all around the world.

The kids are talking to kids all over the world over the web as well as traveling all over the world through Delta's and IHC sponsorships.

The Ron Clark Academy is teaching kids through games and songs.

Ron Clark has so much energy - I think he might actually be able to keep up with my 7yr old.

Ron Clark put an 84 year woman on the slide in the school (tip - if you come do not wear a skirt.)

Georgia should be PROUD to have Ron Clark in the state!

Tino's State of the Industry Report

It's not very good - so let's focus on the positive!

GA compared with FL, NC, CA, TX, & MA

The energy of the technology industry as some areas of significant momentum and also faces some areas of resistance.

Technology Employment has grown and VC funding has gone up.

We have an increase in the young and the ready workforce.

27% of people over 25 of at least a BS - which lags behind MA and A. The degreed population has increased 4% since 2000.

GA is last among benchmark states in Math scores and is 49th in the nation.

GA has low cost of Education couples with the Hope scholarship putting a college education in reach.

Women obtaining technology degrees in a shrinking trend.

Women are leading the way in Women-owned technology companies - which is still only 4% of the industry.

GA Technology industry is still struggling from the 2001 drop and in spite of the economy saw growth in 2008.

GA is NOT getting it's fair share of VC investing.  Only received 0.4% of tech investment in US.

Majority of GA entrepreneurs do not receive any funding and others rely heavily on angel investing.

Over the past 6 years employment growth is improvement.

IPOs have dwindled to single digits - there were 0 IPOs in GA in 2008

M&A is exploding.

82% of the buyers are outside of the state.

71% of VCs surveyed by TAG say they are willing to invest in GA - but they NEED to be aware of GA deals.

Goals is to be a top 5 state in Technology. We must improve our education in all levels.

We need to grow our entrepreneur base to keep our employment numbers growing. Which means we need more public and private funding. Need pro-bone mentoring!

Need economic incentives to compete on a national and global level.

 

10 Most Innovative Companies Part 1

Companies that have the most disruptive technologies that will change the economic face of GA.

Acknowledging the Judges who spend so much time
Dennis Zakas, McKenna Long & Aldridge
Ron Dolinsky MarketQuest
Mark Barry Openview Partners
Ed Croft Croft & Bender
Ben Dyer TechDrawl
Stephen Fleming Georgia Tech
Linnea Geiss Arcapita
Kathy Harris Noro-Mosley Partners
Don House VersionOne
Knox Massey Atlanta Technolgy Angels
Sig Mosley Implay Invvestments
Jeff Muir Fulcrum Ventures
Michael Reene investor and Entreprenuer
Mark Samuels Johns Creek Capital and GT Venturelab
Paul Stamatiou Skribit

First presentation is from Suniva, Inc - efficient solar cells at $1/watt - we can be competitive with fossil fuel.

Second presentation Acculink Payment system that reduces that cost of the transaction.

Third presenation (after break) was Unicoi - I missed most of presentation,

Fourth presentation PlayOn Sports - help organizations to connect with their fans through online video- follows every step from capture to distribution of the events. 

Fifth presentation Pramana, Inc works as an invisible shield against bot traffic.

Sixth Presentation Secure Works - will be launching 5-7 significantly enhanced or new product lines this year.

Seventh Presentation CCP North America - World of Eve - very cool stuff...

Eighth Presentation Purewire - threats are moving from email to the web. 

Ninth Presentation Asankya - accelerate cloud applications - making them faster and more secure. 

Tenth Presentation - Nanolumens - Capturing the growth of Indoor Advertising.

My vote is for CCP - I need to think of the future of my son's future - but Nanlumens is Cool too.

Hot, Flat & Crowded

Thomas Friedman is at the GA Tech Summit talking about his new book Hot, Flat and Crowded.

 
Some key points.

He showed an advertisement where the pitch to foriegn (to us) consumers is that there is nothing American about the car. Sad.

The world is getting hot - 2 degrees is a huge difference for the planet just like it is for the human body.

Today there too many people on the planet   - my thought the climate shift might take care of that.

Tow cities I have never heard of are growing and using energy and natural resources faster than we can attempt to reach sustainability. This is what happens when Flat meets Crowded, when more and more people have access ad the ability to live the American lifestyle - it is simply not sustainable.

The First Law of Petropolitics.

The politics of our oil purchases.

As the price of oil goes down - the pace of freedom goes up... as the price of oil goes up - the pace freedom goes down.

Friedman introduces the idea that their is a difference between Global Warming and "Global Weirdness." Global Warming is Golf in Feb - "Global Weirding"

global weirding

n. an increase in severe or unusual environmental activity often attributed to global warming

All the sea ice is the South Pole will be gone by 2012 - my thoughts...that fits with the 2012 theory....

Tounge and cheek suggestion to Al Gore that he should apologize for UNDER estimating climate change.

1.6 billion - which is 1 out 4 people are not part of the energy grid - which leaves them stranded during this climate shift.

To be energy poor in a hot flat and crowded world will be devastating.

The age of Noah - the last two giant softshell turtles are being kept alive - one is 100 and one is 80 and we are trying to get them to mate...we are the first generation of human beings who will have to think like Noah to figure out how to save certain species. Our kids will see more and more of the last species.

Later is over. Later is a luxury - meant you can  enjoy the same......whenever you got around to it. In the energy climate era - Later is going to be removed from the dictionary. We can no longer do those things again. Later is over.

In summary - we have 5 big problems in the early 21st century.

1. Energy and Natural Resources Supply and Demand
2. Petrodictatorship
3. Climate Change
4. Energy Poverty
5. Biodoversity Loss

This list is a list of opportunities. They all have the same solution.

-  abundant, cheap, clean reliable electrons and molecules.

The next great global industry is Electronic Technology. 

The method to Friedman's madness is to re-define "green" - it is not about all the hippy, nose ring, sandals stuff - they named it Liberal, Tree-Hugging, Vaguely European....In the face of our challenges and problems, it is geo-political, geo-economic, capitalistic, and it is the new Red, White, and Blue.

We're not having a green revolution, we are having a green party - which has no connection what so ever with a revolution. We will know it's a revolution when someone gets hurt. Not physically.

Such as the IT Revolution - CHANGE OR DIE! (which I think we are still feeling those affects and people still are NOT changing).

We are trying to make the word green disappear - it will be a non-issue - it will be a standard.

The word you should use when talking about a Revolution is the word "easy."

The true scale of this project is one new clean energy plant a day from today for the next 36 years. (sounds like job creation to me)

Eco-system for innovation - the right rules, laws, standards and most important - price standards - and you will see innovation that will knock your socks off.

IT gave people a whole new world that did not exist before, ET competes against an existing, cheaper, dirtier source of power.

Co2 emissions: "We are not going to regulate ourselves out of this problem... This is a problem for engineers, not regulators."

However, we will need charge for the dirty energy not for the clean energy - we need the price signal in place for change.

Interesting way to start and stop his presentation. Started with the ad pitching a car that Americans had nothing to do with it. Concluding that we need to be a "democratic" China  - or a "Banana" Republic

Build

Absolutely

Nothing

Anywhere

Near

Anything

The ET (Energy Technology Revolution) is how we can get this country back on course.

This is so 2007

BUT I AM NOT COMPLAINING!

I mentioned after SoCon09 that I miss people Live Blogging events, that everything is all about Twitter.

WELL - my friend Patrick Gaul reserved a table at the GA Technology Summit specifically for LIVE BLOGGING!!!

I will be LIVE BLOGGING here - as well as updating my status updates. I will write a nice recap to post on the corporate blog later tonight.

Here at the table with me are some of the most respect bloggers in the city. Check out Justin Rubin - who is writing for Tech Journal South, David Cohen, Amani Chanel, and Jon Gatrall.

Connecting People and Ideas - Using Social Software to Turbo Charge Innovation

Puneet Gupta, CEO of ConnectBeam presenting at the first Enterprise 2.0 Society meeting.

ConnectBeam started before the term Enterprise 2.0 was coined.  The to solve a particular pain within a company which was accessing the vast amounts of information within an Enterprise.

Reasons for using Social Software (Survey by 451 group) - Improve employee communication and collaboration, is the number 1 answer.

Only 44% of business users can find what they want on their corporate Intranet. - Forrester Research

Yet, 87% of people saythey can find what they are looking for on the Internet most of the time. - Pew Internet & American Life Project

As information scales, control and predefined structures do not.

Metadata from users themselves (a.k.a. Folksonomy) is the catalyst which will enable search to become the center of usable information.

Metadata/Folksonomy - you, as human,  can bring information and insights to the computer that no algorithm can.

People are more forgiving of the search results when they are searching for information on the Internet, but when they are searching for information inside the companies that is needed to do a job, they are more critical and want more specific results. A person is very particular about the intent of the search.

Benefits of Social Search;

• Faster response time
• Insights that leads to innovation and increased productivity
• Consolidate duplicate efforts
• More connections to information and people.

Currently, many people are searching for the same information over and over again, but there is no way to connect those people.

Social Search enables users to connect with the most relevant people and top rated content.

The concept of bookmarking is as old as the browser and users know how to search, by adding the social layer people connect with each other while searching for and discovering  information.

Product Demo
Search Results is ranked by human activity to the content such as saving and tagging links. Tags are applied by the end user in regards to the context that the information is related to them.

The application is very similar to del.icio.us but designed for behind the firewall in the enterprise.

Note - Last night at the dinner we were talking about how users without this application was using del.icio.us which is compromising the organization's Intellectual Property.

The search results also connects the users of the information in a Facebook type of application.

The Possibilities of Mass Collaboration

I attended the Georgia Technology Summit today. So far I found a few blogs, some tweets, and Amani Channels video from the session. I am sure there are more to come. I will be saving the reactions here.

The keynote Speaker was Don Tapscott, author of Wikinomics - the 2007 management book of the year.

I was very excited that this group would be introduced to his message, but I am a little concerned that it did not resonate with many.

Just follow some of the tweets;

StephenFleming:                

#gts2008 Seeing a lot of eyes glazed over here. I hope it's soaking in to some people.                  

jhaynie:                

#gts2008 -  *more people need* to read wikinomics in this room                

I actually saw someone dozing off!

Tapscott started with the 2007 Time Magazine person of the year as being “You.”

He discussed the growth of Facebook and MySpace that is happening all over the world and that there is a new blog created every second of everyday…

And then he dropped the "All this news is so 2006."

Today it is about a new way of productions. How we create goods and services and how companies communicate all over the world.

What was so timely about this message was the post on BusinessWeek

Social Media Will Change Your Business
Look past the yakkers, hobbyists, and political mobs. Your customers and rivals are figuring blogs out. Our advice: Catch up…or catch you later

I would like to repeat...I saw people falling asleep this morning!!!

Tapscott also discussed how the new web is accessed throughout various “things” from chips in the door key for his hotel to smart houses.

He talked about how the physical world is becoming smart and interconnected bringing up;

Broadband Mobility

Geo-Spatiality (GPS Tour Guide)  and IntelliOne

He also discussed the idea of True Multimedia – You get to have a movie and be in the movie as well. Think of the next generation of game play with cinema.

I would say it is practically here with machinima.

Tapscott discussed the rise of web services and how the new web is based on XML – computation…..where every time you interact with the computer you are programming the global platform and the need to integrate internal systems to the global platform (AJAX)

He announced that people who keep thinking about the Internet as it used to be are making a big mistake.

Our kids, the ones coming into the workforce, known as the net generation, have no “fear” of technology because it is like air to them.

I hated computers in the 10th grade. Todays 10th graders do not know a world without computers.

How much of an accelerated change is this?...Tapscott showed the growth trend of this generation in regards to the population growth

Generations – Boom, Bust (Gen X) and then the  Echo (net gen) which is louder than the original boom.

For this generation time online is taking away from television. These kids watch less TV and they are multi-taking while interacting with all their digital devices.

62% of the time heavy Internet users bleep out TV ads. That means when they are watching television, they are watching it on their own terms.

Tapscott noted that this is the first time in history when children are the authority on something really important.

Tapscott highlighted the attitudes of the net gen based on  a panel with some kids awhile back.

"Why would I read a newspaper no links and only comes out once a day…"

"News is called an RSS feed and I can start my own newspaper."

"The Daily Show is not funny unless you know the news."

Kids expect to be engaged. As Tapscott pointed out;

Self organization has been around for the ages. Language is a function of self organization. But what used to take place over a millennia or centuries now can happen in a week or even a single day.

Tapscott noted that the average age of people who watch the nightly news is 62!

He also made a good case that the Internet is a platform for collaborations and that companies should not have websites anymore, they should be building communities.

Best question of the day...If you have employees wasting time on social networks…..is that a technology problem?

Sharing is Capitalism at it’s best because it is collaboration for innovation.

My Question – First I noted that there is a generation gap - from my spot in the room I thought I was the only one with a laptop trying to live blog (the wireless was not accessible) as opposed to all the bloggers we have at the SoCon events. But as you see a few others blogged the event -some of the "usual suspects" :)

Then I asked how the participants  of today's summit can find the balance of responding and managing these shifts as well as strategies to embrace and take advantage of these trends. Tapscott nailed the answer - just start contributing.

Overall it was a great event and I got to see a lot of people I know and meet a few new people.

Tonights closing quote;

We could go over the cliff. You would hope not. You would hope that people see what needs to be done. It's not rocket science. It's not difficult. It's not even all that costly. It's actually about the way you think about the world.

Tim Flannery

MindBlogging BlogSavannah - Legal Issues

The cases of when you can sue someone for what they said are few.

The truth is an absolute defense - that is not a cliche it is the law. No matter how damaging what they say is - if it is true then you can not sue.

The other issue is if someone had the intent to hurt someone. That is a hard thing to prove.

Public figures are not allowed to bring about the same issues as the average citizens. The reason is that they have volunteered to be in the public eye.

The real sticky situation is "who is a public figure?"

There are some obvious - easy ones, but when we are discussing a citizen who is involved on a board are they a public figure? What if someone takes the discourse out of the issues when they are a public figure. Such as what they are doing in their private life.

Bloggers typically believe that their opinions are important - and will also believe that others are wrong and will blog about it.

If you are creating a site - are you responsible for what others say on your site. It is pointed out that you are the host and should be a responsible host.

One way is to have proscriptions that states no one is allowed to defame others, no hateful statements, advocating or discussing illegal activities with the intent to commit them.

OPEN Q&A

The question is in regard to the rights someone taking and posting a picture of an individual without their permission. For example if you are at an event and you do not want people to know you were at the event.

The answer is it is open domain and that people have the right to post the picture, but they can not make any assumptions around the photo such as by attending an event the person was endorsing it.

Another point is that it is hard to find a person liable - and if you can not collect damages when they are - what is the point?

Should not be afraid of being sued. Just because anyone can sue anyone for anything - they do not always win. Oftentimes they do not win.

Civil disobedience is an illegal activity, but it is one that helped achieve our civil rights...how does one get around this in grassroots activities for change...take the risk if it is worth it. As an attorney says yes there is a legal issue there but it is boarder line.

Another question about people who are thrust into the public eye without choice - such as the Rutgers Basketball team - what right do they have to protect what is said about them? Again the conversation can result around what makes them a public identity - such as their ability to play basketball, but beyond that they are protected as any other citizen.

GA as a Right to Work State - which means you can be fired for any reason or no reason. Can your employer fire you because of you blog? The short answer is yes because this is a right to work state, unless you are part of a union or have an employment agreement. There is very little protection for employees.

Email and text message is very dangerous because it is easy to type something out in anger and send it off. (um...yeah....amen)

How does the first amendment protect and what are the limitations - the first amendment is the starting point. The places you can not go include defamation or inciting violence.

Having a violent opinion is not the same as inciting violence, but the lines can get blurry.

Question about the ability to scrape content and republish it other places. Yes you can copyright your material online which is as easy as putting the copyright symbol - but to bring action you need to register that material.

When it is just a nuisance  you typically just need to send a letter.

It is also important to note that you can not protect ideas, just the expression of ideas.

The court system has not caught up with all the ways it is now possible to take content and re-purpose it for profit.

The one place that the law seems to be caught up is on the issue that the Internet does not stop at the boarder. The Internet issues can fall under Federal Law because it is considered international.

Question regarding Creative Commons - which provides you with a choice of different licenses for your content.

It is a higher level of notice - which makes it quite powerful. Although it allows people to share and remix - it also protects the originator because it is a more well-defined notice of rights that the end user has established.

 

Mindblogging BlogSavannah - GPSing & Geocaching

GPS is being used in tourism quite a bit.

More and more multimedia can be integrated into the GPS devices - example being shown, in Savannah when you are close to an attraction, such as the Olde Pink House - you can click on the link and learn more about that attraction and make the decision if you want to stop.

The devices are getting more engaging - not just to get a person from one destination to another but to enrich a person's travel and help them experience a destination.

Flickr has the ability to geo-tag your pictures (personally I have tried this manually and did not find it user-friendly yet).

If a user is using geo tagging you can see where their pictures were taken on a map.

These maps/pictures can then be put up on blog sites - enhancing the distribution and  allowing for people to share their experiences with their readers and peers.

GEEK SPEAK ALERT!

Track logs are in the GPS and in the camera which can help take the geo-code in the metadata so that Flickr can use the image to get an accurate account of where and when a picture was taken.

I have my thoughts of some applications for this such as tracking our environmental changes, news stories, and such, but I am struggling to know what an everyday person would use this for...however there was a time people did not know why an everyday person would want a computer...this will be interesting to watch as it evolves.

Google Maps for mobile. What if you do not have GPS - and you do not know where you are and need to find your way using your Mobile phone? Google has that covered.

The video that is being shown is convincing us that Google is not tracking us...it is not a big brother issue. They are just speaking with the phone from the cell tower. I just find it fun that they have to spend 30-40% of the informational video claiming they are not gathering data on us...um...yes they are...and that is how they are customizing searches. I have more thoughts on this...but that would get this off tracked.

Geocaching - www.geocacher-u.com

The ability to use this content to find information and attractions that most people are not aware of.

What kind of people are geo-cachers?  All kinds - it is not just extremist.