Last fall, Book Riot successfully funded a Kickstarter campaign to publish a book. But it was grueling and not very financially rewarding. Here’s what you need to keep in mind if you decide to publish via Kickstarter. Read more at paidContent »
When Google launched its EC2 rival, Google Compute Engine, last June, it set some high expectations. Sebastian Standil’s team at Scalr put the cloud infrastructure service through its paces — and were pleasantly surprised at what they found. Read more »
We talk a lot about big data, but only analyze 1 percent of what’s available. In order to take advantage of the other 99 percent, we need to reconsider how we do big data. Read more »
The mobile explosion has meant an exponential growth in data use – and punishing traffic to our cellular networks. In the eyes of VCs, that mobile misfortune spells opportunity. Read more »
Wi-Fi has moved from an at-home convenience to a public service as mobile devices continue to take over. Here’s a look at the new opportunities to connect with consumers, and how businesses can easily screw it all up. Read more »
The digital age has made possible many of the human-technology interactions that once were the stuff of science fiction. But at what cost? UX designers must be aware of and accountable for the human impact of their work. Read more »
Medium’s editorial strategy might be rounding into shape with the hiring of Evan Hansen, formerly of Wired, to work on Twitter founder Evan Williams’ new venture. Read more at paidContent »
Safari on the iPad utterly dominates tablet web traffic. Yet the experience of the web with tablet browsers is terrible, as users get an irritatingly predictable experience. Read more »
Online security is big business, and is only increasing as private data moves to the public cloud. So while it’s a tough market to break into, there are also great opportunities for focused startups. Read more »
IBM’s Watson made waves in AI when it defeated a pair of champions on Jeopardy! Now, engineering students at RPI, Watson’s new home, hope to use the supercomputer to gain fresh insights into machine learning. Read more »
A host of factors — including electronic trading and the dominance of hedge funds — have skewed the system to incentivize short-term focus. Company CEOs need to take back control of the aftermarket. Read more »
Native advertising, brand journalism — whatever you call it, the current ad-driven content boom provides a lot of opportunity. But for it to work, journalists and publishers need to think about their brand as much as the advertiser does. Read more at paidContent »
Google’s acquisition of Channel Intelligence could give it a big leg up in ecommerce. But Jason Lehmbeck, DataPop, says the search giant has its sights on the offline retailing world, too, Read more »
Google is the undisputed champ of search, but it’s much better with “head” searches than it is with “long-tail” searches — and that’s a problem. Narendra Reddy, of Wignite, says Google can address that by purchasing the expert network Quora. Read more »
Injure someone’s feelings online and you or your company can be sued for defamation, no matter how silly the slight. Josh King, of Avvo.com, says such nuisance suits — known by the acroynm SLAPP — stifle free speech. Read more at paidContent »
Nothing strikes fear in a business like having the world’s largest e-tailer and cloud provider decide to take you on. But, according to Chris Potter, of Screenlight, you can not only push back — you can succeed, if you follow a couple of rules. Read more »
As commerce increasingly shifts online, why isn’t Facebook a more attractive option? Philip Rooke, of Spreadshirt, says Facebook’s ecommerce experience is unfriendly to consumers and companies. Read more »
Many observers have suggested that Pinterest bought the recipe site for its content. Not so, says Eric Fader of Ignited, who argues that the secret sauce is Punchfork’s technology and what it will allow Pinterest to do. Read more »
It’s no secret that mobile, big data and cloud computing are transforming IT. Sanjay Poonen, president of SAP’s mobile division, says companies need a single unified strategy to tackle them, not three separate ones. Read more »
As we continue the transition to digital, media companies will have more precise and powerful tools to measure success. David Justus, of contentcurrents.com, says Cost Per Hour will be a pivotal metric, both for consumers and content producers. Read more »
To hear Cisco tell it, the world is quickly running out of wireless spectrum. Tim Farrar, of TMF associates, says a look at the numbers shows that Cisco first overstated them, then revised them, and is now overstating them again. Read more »
For many, startups embody the ideals of passion, innovation and agility that can get lost in mature businesses. But John Maeda, president of RISD, says there is also plenty to admire in “end-ups.” Read more »
Alleged pirate Kim Dotcom’s latest venture, Mega, tackles cloud storage. Whatever Dotcom’s motives, Andy Manoske, of GGV Capital, says his startup is bringing a much-needed upgrade to security standards for the cloud storage business. Read more »
There are very few truly new ideas — the key to making a product stand out is better execution. Niniane Wang, who led engineering teams at Google and Microsoft, offers some suggestions to software developers. Read more »
Yes, gamification is trendy and overhyped, but that doesn’t mean it’s always ineffective. Gabe Zicherman, author of an upcoming book on the subject, looks at a few areas where companies are using gamification to find new efficiencies. Read more »
Facebook jumped into an already crowded VoIP market with the update of its Messenger app last week. Robert Gaal, of Karma, says the company’s scale ultimately will allow it to kill off the phone. Read more »
Despite the inexorable move to the cloud, some companies cling to the idea that the risks outweigh the benefits. Dave Girouard, former President of Enterprise for Google, argues that the logic these skeptics use is, well, “insane.” Read more »
There’s never been more video content to watch, or more ways of to watch it. That, says Jeremy Toeman, of Dijit Media, a big problem. In making TV infinite, we’ve lost its most potent benefit: escapism. Read more »
Without needing to snoop, your cloud provider has access to crucial data about your business. Allan Leinwand, of ServiceNow, says that’s why you may need a Chinese Wall between you and your cloud provider. Read more »
With advances in sensors and wireless, the age of wearable tech is swiftly approaching. Christian Lindholm, of design firm Koru, explains the trends his firm is tracking. Read more »
The issue of resiliency in the cloud has gained new life after Amazon experienced an outage that took out Netflix on Christmas Eve. Hybrid clouds are the answer to the problem, but how do you know what applications deserve such treatment? Read more »
As consumers feast on even more video across multiple devices, the advent of Ultra HD – which has four times the picture quality of HD – will simply choke bandwidth. Sean McCarthy, of Motorola Mobility, says its future depends on a smarter, slimmer codec. Read more »
While some are hoping for better software to reduce the need for data scientists, WibiData’s Omer Trajman thinks we need more of them. Better software, he argues, is actually just a tool to make it easier for data scientists to do world-changing work. Read more »
Until now, the mobile revolution has been about squeezing the desktop internet onto portable devices. Entrepreneur Edward Aten says the real revolution for smartphones is about fulfilling a whole new set of needs that people have in their daily lives. Read more »
Huge and expensive patent battles aren’t going away anytime soon– in fact, they’re likely to continue to pick up steam this year. Efrat Kasznik, of Foresight Valuation Group, lays out some of the intellectual property battlegrounds of tomorrow. Read more »
The conventional wisdom is that we have a radio spectrum shortage. That’s not the case, according to President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. What we need is a much more efficient way to allocate what we have, and that includes a plan for shared use. Read more »
Every VC firm has its own way of evaluating potential investments. Remmy Oxley, an anonymous VC, says that Moneyball-style methods are the next step, and reveals his firm’s algorithm for screening candidates. Read more »
As startups race to become the next big thing, they often downplay the successes and sales of those they hope to replace. But large companies spend billions on old technology because they don’t have the resources to try something new. Read more »
Sure, more data scientists would be great. But Scott Brave, of Baynote, says the better solution is to create analytics products that are so easy to use that you don’t even need a data scientist. Read more »
It’s been a decade since MVNOs first challenged major wireless carriers, and now they account for more than 10 percent of mobile users. Telecom veteran Whitey Bluestein says the latest crop of MVNOs are poised to trigger a whole new round of disruption. Read more »
