Deborah Schultz, partner in the Altimeter Group, discusses the value of Data in the Network Age. As someone who’s been working with top consumer packaged goods companies, Deborah has good clarity about what data is out there about customers. In this segment she looks 3-5 years out to a time when companies as well as customers can analyze customer behavior, to the benefit of both. There will be real time and stored data access to let us learn more about what we buy, how we act and how to save money or get better things for our money.
Deborah also discusses innovation design, bridging the gap between cutting edge technologies and companies that are just becoming ready to adopt them.
Umair Haque spoke on the first day of Supernova, and appeared on the “Crisis? What Crisis? Strategies for a Connected World” panel on day 2.
In our talk, he summarizes his talks, giving us understanding of his theories about thick and thin value created by companies. He also discusses the way that companies can create more thick value – in other words, how they can be more productive for the company as well as society as a whole.
Doc Searls, Fellow at the Berkman Center at Harvard, moderated the panel on Telecom as Software at Supernova on Day 3. Doc observed that it is still very early in the current cycle of telecom innovation, and even though we are able to treat some calls as data, most are still a challenge. He asks why we can’t switch carriers and networks when there’s connectivity on one but not the other.
Doc also describes the project he’s working on at the Berkman center, project VRM, which stands for Vendor Relationship Management. He tells us a little about what VRM means, and how it affects the relationships between customers and companies.
Harriet Pearson,Vice President, Security Counsel & Chief Privacy Officer at IBM, discussed Social Media in the Enterprise and how employees must consider both their public and corporate social media presences. There are challenges for security and corporate information as well as for brand reputation.
IBM started codifying their policies for blogging and participation in 2005. They continue to encourage employees to participate online, and have simple rules for engagement.
Recently IBM commissioned a survey with over 3000 people in 5 or 6 different countries, to see what they think about security, privacy, trust and the social web. Harriet covers some of the results in our discussion.
She also discusses the balance between sharing and being private online.
Catharine Hays, Project Director of Wharton’s Future of Advertising program, tells us why we should care about the Future of Advertising. The project seeks to reinvent the scope, practice and value of the word Advertising. It’s more about redefining what Advertising means, and looking at the audience, instead of being intrusive and interruption focused.
“Corporations have products we want, so why not have a good symbiotic relationship?” asks Hays. Customers have the power to destroy the advertisers who don’t fulfill their promises, and companies are starting to realize this. They are now recognizing that they must be part of conversations.
Dr. Karl Ulrich spoke to me after his Wharton Talk at Supernova on the subject of Innovation Tournaments (which is also the title of his most recent book.) He describes innovation tournaments, and how companies are already using this format to help find more ideas that can be funneled and used to drive new products and services. The key is generating as many ideas as possible at the top of the funnel. Interestingly enough, Innovation Tournaments and American Idol have common elements, leading to a discussion of Kelly Clarkson versus Sanjaya.
After the final plenary session at Supernova, Supernova Group Founder & Conference Organizer Kevin Werbach interviews Craigslist Founder Craig Newmark, Wikipedia Founder Jimmy Wales, and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s Senior Advisor for Innovation Alec Rossabout the most important changes they’ve seen, and their predictions for the biggest changes to come.
After yesterday’s afternoon session, we spoke with Phil McKinney who is CTO of HP’s Personal Systems group, and also runs the Killer Innovations podcast. Phil spoke about innovation, how one becomes an innovation “expert” and what it takes to get innovation into organizations.
“The glow in the theater used to be cigarettes – now it is the glow of cell phones, and kids texting to their friends, and their social networks from inside the movie.” This is how Peter Guber of Mandalay Entertainment described the immediacy of movie reviews and the way entertainment is commented upon, and potentially blasted by the Friday night it hits the theaters. The instant communication has changed what it means to be in the entertainment business.
One thing hasn’t changed. Even with all of our digital technology, “we don’t speak in 0’s and 1’s” Guber told me in our interview. All the digital storytelling in the world won’t move us – we are analog creatures, and the storytelling we enjoy has been baked into our DNA for thousands of years.
Thanks to Peter for taking the time to speak with us at Supernova.
As we noted earlier this week, we’re excited to announce a special track at Supernova 2009: Real Time Flow, co-hosted by BT. Join us for a cutting-edge exploration of the shift from a web of static pages to real time streams of interactions. Last year, our innovative Open Flow track considered the technologies and practices that allow information to move freely between users, websites, and organizations. In the months since then, many of the ideas that were radical then have gone mainstream. At Supernova 2009, we’ll address the next step: making use of open data flows in real time.
On this week’s Network Age Briefing call, we’ll chat with Marshall Kirkpatrick, Vice President of Content Development at ReadWriteWeb, and also the Lead Writer. He hails from Portland, Oregon, USA. Prior to joining R/WW in Sept 2007, Marshall was Director of Content at SplashCast Media. During 2006 he was Lead Blogger at TechCrunch.
Joining Marshall was Kevin Marks, VP of Web Services at BT. He was also Principal Engineer for Technorati after working for both Apple and the BBC. Kevin is also one of the founders of Microformats.
As we noted earlier this week, we’re excited to announce a special track at Supernova 2009: Real Time Flow, co-hosted by BT. Join us for a cutting-edge exploration of the shift from a web of static pages to real time streams of interactions. Last year, our innovative Open Flow track considered the technologies and practices that allow information to move freely between users, websites, and organizations. In the months since then, many of the ideas that were radical then have gone mainstream. At Supernova 2009, we’ll address the next step: making use of open data flows in real time.
Joining Marshall was 
