Winners of Startup Carnival announced! The Australian startup landscape is rapidly evolving

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The winners of Vishal Sharma’s Startup Carnival have been announced.

The first three prize winners are:

1. Scouta

2. GoodBarry

3. Suburbview

The three judges (Duncan Riley, Justin Davies and myself) scoured through the 24 applications to identify the winners.

My formal comment after judging the field was:

It was very encouraging to see many exciting new market entrants as well as more established firms in the carnival. The depth and breadth of entrepreneurial talent in Australia is rapidly growing, and taking advantage of the massive opportunities emerging in the online space. Hats off to the drive and initiative of the entrepreneurs behind the very impressive array of entries.

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Is business yet to harness Web 2.0, or not yet willing to talk about it?

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Tuesday’s edition of The Australian has an article titled Business yet to harness Web 2.0. Overall it takes a rather sceptical approach to the topic, though it does include some positive comments.

Beginning with an overview of what Web 2.0, and suggesting it is confusing, it goes on:

Business strategy analyst Ross Dawson says Web 2.0 systems are becoming part of everyday business processes, like it or not.

“Virtually every large organisation is using these tools and in many cases it’s not sanctioned as part of an overall technology strategy.

“However, partly in recognition that many users are doing this anyway, large organisations are deciding this is something they need to think about, develop a strategy, and understand the value and the risks,” Dawson says.

The article then quotes IDC research that 50% of companies in the Asia Pacific see Web 2.0 as a business opportunity, while 8% see it as a threat. It says that Australian corporate giants Telstra, Westpac, Lend Lease, AMP, and Suncorp are all active in Web 2.0, though apparently the last three declined to comment for the article, saying it is too early to speak about their initiatives. This is rather disappointing, since I know that for at least two of these companies their activities are absolutely advanced enough to share with comfort.

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Why we will all have robot pets in the future

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Robots have been perhaps the most-predicted and least-realized aspect of our future. Decades ago we believed that robots would soon be part of the household, doing useful tasks for humans finally able to laze about rather than doing chores. This has not yet come to pass, though washing machines, for example, are arguably task-specific robots. What was not so expected was that robots would be something we would bond to emotionally.

I’ve written and been interviewed about a variety of aspects of the future of robots, including therapeutic robots, emotional robots in aged care, and the economic role of robots. Now that robots have reached a sufficient level of maturity, we have our very own robot pet in the family.

My wife Victoria Buckley, inspired by Where’s My Jetpack, a book she gave me for Christmas, recently bought a Pleo, the latest generation of robotic pet. Pleo is a robotic dinosaur that behaves like a domestic pet – curious, cute, cuddly, and responsive to interaction and people’s emotions.

The makers of Pleo, Ugobe, have a neat site where users can set up their own Pleo blogs (plogs). Victoria has been writing the adventures of our Pleo (named Titus) on her plog, worth reading for the cute photos of Titus with our eighteen-month old daughter Leda alone!

Below is a brief video (1:36 min) of my thoughts on the role of robot pets in our lives.

Complimentary report: Executive Insights into Enterprise 2.0 from roundtable hosted by Future Exploration Network and IBM

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The week before the Enterprise 2.0 Executive Forum, Future Exploration Network and IBM hosted a roundtable of senior executives discussing Enterprise 2.0.

Highlights of the discussions were written up in a report which is being made openly available, to assist other executives in considering the key issues involved. Download the report here:

Executive Insights into Enterprise 2.0:

Lessons from the Enterprise 2.0 Executive Roundtable

e2roundtable_cover.jpg

INTRODUCTION

Enterprise 2.0 – the application of Web 2.0 approaches inside organisations – is one of the most topical issues today for senior technology executives. To eludicate the concepts and to enable experiences to be shared, Future Exploration Network and IBM invited a select group of senior executives to Sydney’s Level 41 restaurant on 13 February 2008. In a free-ranging discussion overlooking Sydney’s harbour, the executives discussed Enterprise 2.0 and its implications and potential for large organisations.

CONTENTS

Roundtable Participants

Introduction to Enterprise 2.0

Defining Enterprise 2.0

Identifying Business Value

Risks and Concerns

Social Networks in the Enterprise

The Shifting Role of IT

Organisational Culture in Enterprise 2.0

The Role of Governance

Summary of media coverage of Enterprise 2.0 Executive Forum

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There has been some great media coverage of the Enterprise 2.0 Executive Forum. Below is a summary of some of the articles and media that are available online. It is very encouraging that the mainstream media is not only taking up these themes, but giving it such positive coverage – the articles are well worth a read.

Sydney Morning Herald: Facebook up to it

Excellent review of the event and the rise of Enterprise 2.0

Smartcompany: Web 2.0: Our winning ways

Interview with Ross Dawson on the state of Enterprise 2.0

MIS The Scoop podcast: Australian Enterprise 2.0 lessons revealed

Podcast of excerpts from the Enterprise 2.0 case studies presented at the Executive Forum

Internal Comms Hub: Enterprise 2.0 should be harnessed as a strategic asset

Overview of the Enterprise 2.0 Executive Forum and key lessons

Computerworld: Janssen-Cilag dances Enterprise 2.0 jig

Review of Janssen-Cilag case study presented at the Executive Forum

The Financial Standard: Wikis may be working for Westpac

Review of Westpac case study presented at the Executive Forum

Metaverse Journal: Enterprise 2.0 forum – Business IS getting it

Review of Enterprise 2.0 Executive Forum

NineMSN: Social networking sites help boost business: expert

Ross Dawson’s on the value of social networking for organizations

Social Media Show: Podcast interviews with David Holloway and Stephen Collins

[UPDATE]

The Australian: Business yet to harness Web 2.0

Review of Web 2.0 in Australia, quoting speakers at Enterprise 2.0 Executive Forum

Summary of presentations at Enterprise 2.0 Executive Forum

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We have been posting the speaker presentations at the Enterprise 2.0 Executive Forum on the event blog as they have been made available. Below is a summary of the presentations that the speakers have provided to us:

(Note: to see slide details in the slide shows, view the slides on Slideshare and put the presentation into full screen mode).

Be sure to check out the rest of the content on the Enterprise 2.0 blog – there have been some great contributions from speakers and many participants.

Ross Dawson, Chairman, Future Exploration Network

Euan Semple

https://www.scribd.com/doc/2092226/Euan-Semple-Handout

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How to save money running a start-up – tap talent don’t squeeze it

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Jason Calacanis’ company Mahalo includes hundreds of interesting user submitted ‘How To’ guides. The team saw a gap, and created their own list of 17 (and growing) tips on how to save money running a startup.

It’s a good read, and eminently practical. The thrust of the tips are to save money on things that aren’t important, but to spend on the things that are important, particularly those that make staff more productive (which includes making them happy). For example, Jason says “buy cheap tables and expensive chairs” – tables are a commodity but good chairs make people more productive and effective. He also recommends buying extra screens for staff, which makes them more efficient at their work, and buying home computers for those who want to work extra hours at home. If staff are salaried, buy them lunch so they don’t leave the office, and get an expensive automatic coffee machine to keep people from wasting time going to the local coffee shop.

Some have suggested that Jason’s tips suggest a total lack of balance, and certainly all of this can be taken too far. However as long as people can go out to enjoy some sunshine when they feel it’s appropriate, this all makes sense.

The one tip that I absolutely don’t agree with is:

“Go to each of your vendors every 6-9 months and ask for 10-30% off. If half of them say yes you’ll save 5-15% on fixed costs. People will give you a discount if they think they are going to lose the business.”

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Notes from the PR and New Media Summit

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I’m at the PR and New Media Summit in Sydney, organised by frocomm. The delegates, drawing on frocomm’s market presence, are primarily in-house PR people, with a good represention of government departments as well as corporates. The initial show of hands on how many people read blogs (a few), write blogs (almost none), listen to podcasts ( fair few), or create podcasts (reasonable smattering), indicates most here are here to learn. Australian organizations have In the main been slow to engage externally with social media, though more case studies are becoming visible.

Ross Monaghan’s engaging opening presentation gave a broad overview of the scene, including showing the audience Michael Wesch’s marvellous Teaching the Machine video. He also shared results from a survey the conference organizers had recently run, with notably 55% of CEOs saying they couldn’t see the value from new media. He did use quite a few examples of how organizations including Southwest Airlines, General Motors, and others, though unfortunately no Australian cases.

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Device convergence in our pockets

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An interesting article in the Sydney Morning Herald titled Is that a computer in your pocket? examines how mobile phones, PDAs, portable computers and more are converging. It quotes me as follows:

According to Ross Dawson, chairman of the Future Networks think tank, other obstacles will also frustrate users looking for a portable mobile computing solution. The first is the limitation of existing small screen technologies to give a satisfying viewing experience. The second is the need for a more efficient means of inputting data on the device or through accessories such as fold-away keyboards.

He adds that the usability of a mobile for computing functions is also dependent on whether you must hold it to your ear or not.

“When you do that you cannot see it. Although more people are using ear buds or Bluetooth, they are still the minority. If you are making appointments when speaking to someone you need to have a separate interface”.

While there are many issues at play here, the interfaces to mobile devices are probably the most important factor in how they will be used in the future. I’ve written before about the role of video glasses and portable displays in making mobile devices more embedded in our lives. Similar issues of interfaces and immersion apply in home entertainment and living online.

I absolutely believe that mobile devices will be central to our lives and even entertainment, however first the interfaces for input and output must become seamless and compelling. The current generation of mobile devices and peripherals is on the verge of that becoming reality.

Trends in the Living Networks has been Slashdotted…

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The recent Slate article on the future of libraries, together with the Extinction Timeline referred to in the piece, have been slashdotted.

For those not familiar with this term, Slashdot was the first of the user filtered websites, and has always proudly sported the moniker “News for Nerds”. When I wrote about it in my 2002 book Living Networks, it was already a focus for the technology community in finding out what was hot news. To be “slashdotted” meant to be linked to from Slashdot, and the massive ensuing traffic often resulted in servers crashing.

Today servers and bandwidth are far more solid, so sites are less likely to fall over. Moreover, attention has shifted to the new generation of user filtered websites and services such as Digg, Reddit, StumbleUpon, and many more. However Slashdot still has a devoted following in the tech community, it remains a great source for what is important, interesting, and quirky, and it still gives a massive boost to traffic.