Topic: Personal Technology
Amit Desai describes the first nationwide voice-activated phone service for delivering driving directions to cell phone callers available from Dial Directions. In his short talk, Desai explains the usage model and then touches on two other spoken location services available from the company.
Mark Jacobstein discusses a solution that brings together VoIP and mobile like peanut butter and chocolate. Mobile voice does not mean running VoIP over the cellular data channel. Instead Jacobstein reveals how the iSkoot solution uses the voice-optimized, circuit-switched network for delivery of voice communication to a mobile device, bringing IP telephony to mobile. He describes the huge success of the "3 Skypephone", powered by iSkoot, in a handful of countries so far.
Dean Bubley addresses the challenges facing innovators looking to create openness and choice in the mobile communications market. Bubley, an analyst specializing in the field of mobile and wireless, reminds mobile communication innovators who hold a Utopian view of openness that they must consider the constraints posed by regulations, laws of physics, commercial practicalities, and especially the psychology of the Normob, the normal mobile user, who doesn't care about openness and will need to be convinced.
On the Tracks4Africa website, travelers pool their data, enrich it with textual and pictorial annotations, and collectively create a GPS map that natives and tourists alike can use and enhance. Jon Udell interviews one of the co-founders of Tracks4Africa, Johann Groenewald, who describes how a community of GPS enthusiasts evolved into -- and still exists in a symbiotic relationship with -- a 21st-century mapping business.
Dr. Moira Gunn speaks with Business Week journalist and author, Steven Baker, about his latest book, "The Numerati." In his book, Baker discusses the impact of digital technology in the world: toll booths, credit cards, and immediate access to information.
Hardware has not seen the same level of innovation and variety that software has, due to the high costs of manufacturing and distribution. In this presentation from the Emerging Communications Conference, Jeremy Toeman, Head of Marketing at Bug Labs discusses the emerging open source hardware movement and how it will impact the $10 billion consumer electronics industry.
Bob Blakley of Burton Group discusses relationships and how they are important to identity, privacy, and digital security. He gives an overview of how relationships and identity are related, as well as his belief that the primary purpose of a digital identity is to enable relationships.
Clayton Christensen tells all about his work at a semiconductor fabrication plant which was in a need of a rethink. On this edition of IEEE Spectrum Radio, the Harvard Business School Professor of Business Administration, and author of "The Innovator's Dilemma," outlines his principles for making the world more efficient.
The economic realities of hardware development often stifle innovation. Peter Semmelhack, CEO of Bug Labs, discusses a change in approach, similar to the open source software model, that will promote innovation in the hardware space. Based on the Lego model, Bug Labs is creating a set of tools they believe will eliminate some of the cost and creative prohibitions, and enable a community of users and developers to experiment with the creation of new gadgets.
Can you recall the frustration you last felt trying to navigate through a poorly designed IVR system? What if there were an automated web-based solution that would take you directly to the option you need and then sent the call to your phone? Well, that's exactly what Shai Berger, President and CEO of fonolo.com, presents during this session recorded at the eComm 2008 Emerging Communications Conference, where fonolo.com was voted "Best New Product."
