Once a month I meet with a group of Entrepreneurs/Alpha Geeks. The topic of discussion jumps all over the place, but the conversation is always intriguing and insightful. Here is my attempt to recap today’s discussion and add some additional comments of my own. Credit for the majority of comments and ideas that follow belongs to the breakfast attendees. I am but the summarizer.
- Presence information Cell phone providers could exploit.
- Some similarities between HP and Novell where discussed.
- Quick way to cash… Sell a product, Marketing folks can use without having to talk to IT
- iServer grows into Verio
Cellular providers know who you are and where you are as long as your cell phone is on. If you are with a group of people they could detect who you are with.
The aggregate statistics and behaviors that could be mined from cell phone presence/position data must be worth billions.
The identity and security implication are fun to think about. Your cell phone presence information becomes another part of your digital identity.
How much presence information should a cell phone customer share with their peers?
Maybe the customer would like to place delay loops for some of their contacts. Do you inform a peer that the information they see is delayed or do you want them to believe it is in real time? Perhaps you want you location to be fuzzy like consumer GPS. How fuzzy? It probably depends on who wants to know.
I was surprised Digital Identity wasn’t discussed.
Both companies seem to be struggling to know who they are. Both at one time had a very clear idea. Novell was a networking company that should have become the next Cisco, according to some present. HP likewise lost their position and market to Dell. Novell may be finding some identity in being a Linux company, but I believe it is too soon to tell. One interesting comment was that Novell had a business strategy of destroying their competition, Microsoft. Irregardless of success or failure, Novell didn’t have a post game plan for their match with Microsoft. As a result their market share has dwindled. Phil commented that
this idea, is often referred to as Vendor Sports by Doc Searls. Vendor Sports exists largely as a revenue stream for the tech press. Several attendees agreed
that Customers don’t care about Vendor Sports. I agree that many customers disregard the vendor sport commentary, but I bet that customers waste more time and resources following vendor sports than we or they would like to admit.
Item to note, Attempting to annihilate your competition is not a good business plan, Customers DON’T CARE.
This was new to me, but makes sense. Blackberry is a prime example. NPR was the first to educate me on crackberry prayers.
It doesn’t take huge amounts of venture money to grow a business. In fact you can do it with just a little startup cash from friends and family.
Closing Remarks
Don’t be evil is a good guiding principle when dealing with personnel, customers, and competition in the technology sector. It isn’t always easybut I believe being evil will cost you in the long run. ITConversations is one of the best forms for continuing education and general IT awareness available. No one has the time or money to attend all the events or talk personally with all the people brought to you by ITConversations.